Poor and happy?!?

What did Jesus mean when He said "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for their's is the kingdom of heaven." To be poor in spirit is to understand that without the power of Christ within us we are destitute and poor of anything that can be deemed valuable to the kingdom of God.

We can be both poor and happy because our promise is that we already have the Kingdom of Heaven. It is a real place that Jesus has offered us if we simply acknowledge our need of Him.

Jesus also says that we are happy because we are persecuted and are falsely accused. This is the point where most of us stop and say, "hey, how can I be happy when someone is talking about me or persecuting me?" We tend to make it about us and it is so not about us. Jesus said that we are blessed when we are persecuted for righteousness sake, when we are falsely accused for My sake. This has nothing to do with us. Our sense of entitlement is a lie that satan uses to make us think if we suffer a little bit then we deserve some blessing somewhere down the line.

Our promise from Jesus right now is that we as christians have the kingdom of heaven.

Is that enough?

The promises of Jesus in the rest of the beatitudes are in future tense, they will come, maybe on this earth and maybe not. If all we have until we die is the promise of the kingdom of heaven is that enough to do the things God called us to do and to be the husbands, wives, parents, friends that are a light to a dark world?

Happy are those who understand that they need Jesus to fulfill their spirit. Happy are those who are made fun of for the sake of truth. Happy are those who are gossipped about and slandered because they know Jesus. Those people will spend eternity with their savior in Heaven.

Are you poor? Are you happy? I pray that you are both.