{"id":737,"date":"2019-02-10T08:54:28","date_gmt":"2019-02-10T13:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newhopeforlife.org\/?p=737"},"modified":"2019-02-10T08:54:28","modified_gmt":"2019-02-10T13:54:28","slug":"being-poor-in-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.newhopeforlife.org\/2019\/02\/10\/being-poor-in-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"Being Poor in Spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul><li>Matthew 5:3\n<ul><li>Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven\n<\/li><li>God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for Him (NLT)\n<ul><li>One article summed this up as recognizing &#8220;your utter spiritual bankruptcy before God. It is understanding that you have absolutely nothing of worth to offer God.&#8221; &nbsp;(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gotquestions.org\/poor-in-spirit.html\">https:\/\/www.gotquestions.org\/poor-in-spirit.html<\/a>)\n<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Those who are poor in spirit are extremely fortunate and well off.\n<ul><li>It is when we acknowledge our need for the Lord that He is able to work in our lives\n<\/li><li>Acknowledging our need for Him is also a prerequisite for inheriting the fullness of God\u2019s kingdom.\n<ul><li>Righteousness, peace joy in the Holy Spirit\n<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Being poor in spirit means that we can be used fully and extensively by God.\n<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>What does someone who is poor in spirit look like?\n<ul><li>Humble\n<ul><li>1 Peter 5:5-7\n<ul><li>Let God give you grace\n<\/li><li>Let God exalt you in due time &#8211; that is at the proper time\n<\/li><li>Let God take your cares\n<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Luke 14:7-11\n<ul><li>Choose the lowest places. Let the Lord come and move you up to a higher place.\n<\/li><li>When we choose to exalt ourselves and take the best, He will allow us to be humbled and brought lower.\n<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Matthew 6:1-4\n<ul><li>Don\u2019t perform good works seeking attention and glory &#8211; do your deeds in secret.\n<\/li><li>The Lord will reward you\n<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Philippians 2:3-4\n<ul><li>Put the welfare of others above yourself.\n<\/li><li>Consider what other people need, not just what you need.\n<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>John 17:17-19\n<ul><li>Sanctify means to make holy.\n<\/li><li>Understand where your holiness comes from.&nbsp;\n<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Matthew 16:24-25\n<ul><li>Lay down your desires and your ways of doing things and instead follow Christ &#8211; that is take up His ways.\n<\/li><li>Take up your cross &#8211; the duty and responsibility you have towards Christ; no matter how hard it may be.\n<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Romans 12:16\n<ul><li>Don\u2019t think you\u2019re too good to associate with anyone.\n<\/li><li>Don\u2019t think that you know everything &#8211; there is always something new to learn.\n<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>John 15:12-13\n<ul><li>The greatest love we can show for one another is to lay down our lives for one another.\n<\/li><li>This doesn\u2019t necessarily mean a physical death, but it means putting our own needs and desires aside for one another.\n<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Looks to serve others\n<ul><li>1 Corinthians 9:19-23\n<ul><li>Paul used his freedom in Christ to serve others in order to bring them to Christ.\n<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Mark 10:45\n<ul><li>We should take Jesus\u2019 example &#8211; He did not come to be served but to serve.\n<\/li><li>He came to lay down His life for others.\n<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Rejoices in sharing the sufferings of Christ\n<ul><li>1 Peter 4:12-19\n<ul><li>Rejoice if you are counted worthy to suffer as a Christian\n<\/li><li>If we are persecuted as Christians, it means that the Spirit of the Lord &amp; His glory have come upon us.\n<\/li><li>We are to glorify God during these times of persecution\n<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>2 Corinthians 1:3-5\n<ul><li>When tribulations come, we can look to the Lord for our comfort.\n<\/li><li>As He comforts us, we should also comfort one another\n<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Wise in the things of God\n<ul><li>1 Corinthians 2:1-5\n<ul><li>The most important thing to know is that Jesus is the Son of God, He came to earth as a man, was crucified and resurrected.\n<\/li><li>Be careful about speaking with eloquent words filled with natural wisdom &#8211; that exalts the speaker, not the Lord.\n<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Ephesians 5:15-17\n<ul><li>Time is finite &#8211; don\u2019t waste it; understand the Lord\u2019s will and put time and energy into that.\n<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>1 Timothy 4:16\n<ul><li>Keep a watch on how you live and teach.&nbsp;\n<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for Him (NLT) One article summed this up as recognizing &#8220;your utter spiritual bankruptcy before&#8230;<br \/><a class=\"read-more-button\" href=\"http:\/\/www.newhopeforlife.org\/2019\/02\/10\/being-poor-in-spirit\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newhopeforlife.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newhopeforlife.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newhopeforlife.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newhopeforlife.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newhopeforlife.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=737"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.newhopeforlife.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":738,"href":"http:\/\/www.newhopeforlife.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737\/revisions\/738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newhopeforlife.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newhopeforlife.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newhopeforlife.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}