A Devotional by Pastor Cesar Castellanos
Today’s Bible Verse
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:3
The Poor, Who are Blessed
It is interesting to note how Jesus began His remarkable Sermon on the Mount. He started by concentrating on two opposing words. The first word was “blessed,” which means extreme happiness. The second word was “poor,” which means lacking all things, in other words, misery. However, if Jesus had omitted the words “in spirit,” we would have thought that He was against people developing and progressing in life. But when He used the phrase, “poor in spirit,” He gave a different meaning. The meaning suggests that ‘self’ shouldn’t be the only place of dependence for our lives, because when we admit that we are nothing, it enables the Lord to live in our hearts, where He can help us with anything that seems impossible. In other words, when we recognized we are poor in spirit we choose to depend on God one hundred percent. No one likes to go through times of testing, but behind every test comes a death to our own ability. His purpose is for us to learn to depend on the Lord and not on our own strength.
To the rich young man who was trying to flatter Him, Jesus said, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except one: God” (Matthew 19:16). Jesus did not want to take for Himself any spiritual attribute that belonged to His Father. To Zacchaeus, who was in the sycamore tree, He said, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5). He had to come down from the tree in order for Jesus to dwell in his house. This motivated Zacchaeus to put his life in order.
Satan thought that his spirit was as powerful as God’s. He wanted to sit on God’s throne and this was the origin of his fall (Isaiah 14:13-15). Peter said that God did not forgive the angels that sinned. Instead, He threw them into hell, and put them into the prisons of darkness to be judged later (2 Peter 2:4). Then Peter added in verse nine, “The Lord knows how to rescue Godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.”
Something to Think About
She was just an unknown nun with a great desire to do something important for God and for people. One day Mother Teresa of Calcutta looked outside the walls of her convent. She could see the misery that people were in. This moved her so much that a desire to work for the least fortunate was born inside her. She approached the Mother Superior of the convent and expressed her desire to work for the poorest of the poor. Straight away, she wanted to open an orphanage to help children who did not have homes. When the Mother Superior asked her what her budget was, she showed her the only thing she had, a few ten-dollar bills. The situation may have seemed impossible, but this woman knew very well what her mission on Earth was to be. She set her heart on this dream. The result was the formation of the foundation, ‘Missionaries of Charity’. In the 1990’s, this organization came to have more than one million volunteers in over 40 countries. Due to this great achievement, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. One of her famous quotes was, “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed one.”
Prayer
Father, thank You for helping me to understand that everything valuable in my life and around me, is only a reflection of Your grace and Your love. Thank You, because in every test You have helped me to choose to depend on You. Thank You, because You are always with me. Yours are the riches, the honor and the glory. As Your child, I simply enjoy what belongs to You and as a result, I will never be poor. However, I decide to stay dependent on You for every blessing in my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Declaration
“I am blessed because I am willing to depend on God.”
Today’s Bible Reading
- Old Testament: Exodus 4-6; Psalm 25
- New Testament: Matthew 11:1-19; Acts 16:1-15