Mould me after Your Heart;

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Poor in Spirit

Today's a new day!

Forget about yesterday, all that was hurtful, all that was lost, all emotions and feelings that are not pleasing to the Lord.
Started off today with a morning run and breakfast with Joanie at S11! Feels great meeting up with old friends :)

I started the 52 week bible reading plan today, and read Matthew 5 - 7. The passage talks about how to be pleasing to God in what we do and also how to be more like Him.

In chapter 5, the thing that puzzled me most was verse 3, which says,
'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.'

At first, I didn't know what it meant - does it mean that we are lacking in the Holy spirit? or are we supposed to be low in emotions of our spirit? Both did not make any sense.
Well, I googled it and read up on a few reflections of others. One really good website is this: http://christiantheology.wordpress.com/2008/04/17/on-being-poor-in-spirit/

I realised that what it meant was that we are to view all possessions that we have as nothing, when considering the value of God.
'Nothing in this life was worth sparing if it meant not inheriting the kingdom of God.' (quote from the web link). This made me think for a while.. What was family to me? It means alot. However, God says that whoever loves his Father or Mother more than Him can not be a true disciple of Christ. Learn to let go, of things when God asks. Learn to let go. There is nothing more precious than Him!

Chapter 6 teaches me to watch my heart carefully. Anger without reason or clarification and Lust are from the devil. I guess this really spoke to me. I've been feeling angry the past 2 days about silly things. Maybe those things were ultimately brought onto me through my own irresponsible actions.
Something I realised about the commands that Jesus gave is that it is unlike the Law stated in the Old Testament. About 'an eye for an eye' and loving thy enemy. It feels sometimes that I am to be fully numb to feel nothing but love and submission to what others do wrong and do not call for Justice. However, I don't think that is what the Bible means. It means that we should not take things into our own hands, and let God do a work through His will.

Love your enemy, because that is the Greater Love. Jesus loved those who loved Him, and loved those who despised Him. What He gave to the world was for One and All. What more are we to choose who we are to love?

Chipped @ 1:28 PM