Poverty?

Unconditional love is a hard concept to grasp, especially in a world that is based on conditions…If you don’t pay your rent, you get booted out…if you don’t work, you do not have money for food… In order to physically live and survive in this world you have to meet certain conditions of the world we live in to be successful.

Unconditional love is just … no conditions. Love because…

Because of who we are,   we are made in His likeness. We are a reflection of something greater.  We are valuable.  We are each uniquely created.  Each of us is one of a kind. We are worth more than money…we are so valuable that Christ died for us…He died knowing we may not believe Him…He died knowing that we may believe only enough to see our wretchedness, and walk away. He died knowing that even though we may choose to believe and follow, we were still going to make a lot of mistakes and fail. 

That is what real love is.  Real love gives of itself without demanding in return.  Real love shepherds  and waits, guides and encourages, comforts and disciplines, it supports, it yields and it stands, never wavering or turning away from its object of affection, it never changes its face.  It is always there; it cannot be shaken or removed. Real love keeps, it upholds, it guards, it warns, it observes, it gives heed, attention, consideration to, it keeps watch it protects, and it celebrates.

For God so loved the world….we are the world…we are the children; remember that song from way back when.  If we are the world that God has chosen, why do we reject a love so pure and perfect?  This Love cares for us more than we do ourselves.

In that rejection of Him, is our inability to love one another.  Because we are unable to give what we haven't received for ourselves.…Because we do live in this world.  In order for us to live in this economy we have to have the currency of the kingdom that was designed for us.  Heaven was designed for us.  The currency of heaven is love.

He did not put us here on earth to fail…He has supplied us with everything we need.  But all of it is found in Jesus…and nowhere else.  Failure is our responsibility.  Our responsibility is to get what we need from the One who has it all.  Yet for some reason...we tend to think that we can do it on our own…and that is where we fail.  Yes, fail.  For we all fall short of the glory of God. On this earth we live in a land of spiritual poverty. .  This is to our benefit.  We are not in Heaven yet, but we are seated in the heavenly places in Christ.

 The opposite of spiritual poverty is pride.  Pride is the currency that is motivated and fueled by self and power.  This currency is readily available and easily acquired. This is to our failure…failure to love. The more that pride and self rule our actions and motives, the less real love that is present.  And truly our failure is that we are not seeing or living life on earth as it is in Heaven. If we are one to say we follow Christ, then we claim that our citizenship is in heaven.  Our walk, the way we live, needs then to be subject to the governing ways of Heaven, our lives, our way of thinking, our choices, our actions, are then to be subject to and not contrary to the gospel of Christ.

So...if you can see that you don’t have Him sealed upon your heart, as the answer to this life… simply ask Him, be real with Him about your need.

 And if you have believed Him, and you are realizing that you have been walking through your days as if you don’t need Him(complacency) or have been ignoring an area He has been talking to you about(pride), continue then in the way that you first received Him, realizing again your hopelessness in being able to free yourself.

  And if you are still so prideful that you think you are healthy and the rest of the world is sicker than you… ask the Lord to humble your heart that you can find the brokenness that you need to actually receive from Him.

May our hearts be broken, over our self-sufficiency, pride, and complacency.  Lord God I pray that we would desire a deeper revelation of our spiritual poverty, and desire to walk deeper in relationship with You, for You are the One who has given everything so that we might see the Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven.