"Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit, for Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven"

She's back. Finally. And she was just telling me about her india trip. About how God has raised up a team of ministers and also about how happy the kids are even though they do not have much. As both sides said their last goodbyes, tears rolled down their cheeks. These tears I say, are not of sorrow but of the Love of God. Indeed the children there have been blessed by the team and I'm sure the team too have been blessed by them.

It brings to mind the first beatitude: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus began the famous sermon on the mount with "Blessed are", meaning " The happy". It is not the diluted word "happy" which we use to describe that which brings a smile to our face. It is more than that, it is a a joy beyond the surface emotions.

Then Jesus went on to say, Blessed are the 'poor in spirit'. How can someone who is poor in spirit be happy? One must have an attitude of humility to be poor in spirit. The word suggests utter spiritual destitution. It is the realization that we are not God and that God is God. It is an understanding of who we really are before Him. "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. " - John 15:5

For Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The Lord himself invites us to a meeting concerning our immediate and endless happiness. He desires the very best for us because He loves us.

It is the terrifying promise that when we lose our riches and poverty finally comes -- whether it be lost money or status or virtue or respect or confidence or health or security or job -- that the Kingdom of God will draw near. It's when hope gets broken and promises that are forever erode, that God's Kingdom becomes an option.

It is also talking about the times when people we cherish and love, revere and depend upon leave us -- when those whose energy, passion, wisdom and truth inspire, touch, enliven, gladden and gratify us, when those people are no longer here. The poverty truth is that most often it is only after they have left us by dying or departing in despair or abandoning us in anger that we are able, as never before, to discover what they never could be for us -- that is, the person you and I can only be and become without them. And I can personally testify to the latter.

Bringing it back to the kids in india, they have nothing except a few set of clothes, no parents, no shoes for school etc. Yet that smile on their face. Indeed they have been truly blessed by God. Realising that they have nothing, they are empty, and God filled them up.

Why is it that only when a sense of hopelessness and helplessness descends upon us that we look to God and depend on Him? Well, maybe thats why the Gospel is called GOOD NEWS.

Only when we humble ourselves and admit we are sin-filled and hopeless will we have the right heart and mindset to seek and enter the kingdom of heaven through Jesus Christ our Savior. "God gives grace to the humble."

So what is your be-attitude today?