WOYWW: Blessed are the Poor!

 On my desk, I have my usual art materials.

You may have spotted the bottles of spices

at the top.

We are going to celebrate a good friend's birthday

and I decided we shall give her some

spa treatment. 

I will put the spices into a some sort of facial steam

which is supposed to reinvigorate her skin!

 "Blessed are you who are poor...." Luke 6:20-26

What does blessed mean?  

Partly it means that God turns His face 

towards us with divine favor. 

With all the good in Him. 

To be poor in spirit, what does that mean? 

It's not that we have no money or resources, 

because in Matthew 5:3, we read, 

"Blessed are the poor in spirit..." 

I think it means being aware 

that we are spiritually bankrupt before the Lord. 

That we have absolutely nothing 

that we can offer Him because He is awesome, 

and mighty and does not need anything from us.

 Sometimes I give talks about our business to students. 

I never fail to mention that 

God is a partner in our business, 

and we are successful because of Him. 

Prayer is always a part of the way we do business.

 After one particular talk, 

I was inordinately pleased with myself 

and sort of congratulated myself for doing a good job.  

Immediately, God took me to task 

and showed me verses from Luke 17. 

In it the master says, 

"When you have done everything 

that was assigned to you, you should say, 

'We are unworthy servants; 

we have simply done our duty."

 The Beatitudes are not about what we do. 

If we are a CEO, or a garbage collector, 

a priest or a toilet cleaner,  

that is not what is important to God. 

What is important is what we are, our character. 

Are we becoming like Jesus every day? 

Because for all our roles and duties, 

God can raise up stones to do it all better than we can! 

"WASHED...SANCTIFIED...JUSTIFIED..." 

1 Corinthians 6:11

In the Amplified and other bibles, 

we have these words, 

"made holy, washed clean, purified, 

made free, consecrated, set apart, 

hallowed, pronounced righteous, 

After a tiring day fighting 

pre-Christmas crowds in Divisoria 

or a stifling visit to the ukay ukay 

in Paradise Commonwealth, 

it is soooo refreshing, 

such a relief to have a good bath! 

You know the feeling! 

To be free of the grime that sticks to you, 

the sweat, the smell.

 It's so invigorating to have clean hair again, 

to not be sticky, to put on fresh clothes.

Are we as conscious of the grime, 

the dirt that besets our souls when we sin? 

Are we as eager to wash it away? 

Perhaps if we see our soul in a special mirror, 

we would be eager to do all we can 

to be washed in the blood of Christ, 

to be cleansed by the Holy Spirit.

Joe Focht writes, 

"There is no more confused message 

that you and I could give 

to a lost and dying world 

than to live in sin and at the same time 

to tell people about the 

transforming power of Jesus Christ. 

There isn't a more confusing thing 

we can do to our kids and the 

generation behind us, to this world.

God will not use a compromised life 

to reach a compromised world. 

God will use a life that is given over to Him, 

that is a demonstration of the message 

that through the power of Jesus Christ 

and His love He can 

transform our lives and set us free.” 

Previous Posts

For my growing collection of prompts, inspirations, creative pursuits,

courageous artists and their art, join me here!

or on Facebook and Instagram

Joining the lovely Julia Dunnit for a 

peek at desks and projects!

 

I find a lot of inspiration

visiting my friends here:

Testimony Tuesday, Count Your Blessings, Word Art Wednesday, 

Whatever You Want Wednesday,Winsome Wednesdays, Share the Joy, 

Wednesday Christian Homemaking Link Party

What's It Wednesdays, Unite, WholeHearted Home,

 Rubie Tuesday Link Up, Be Inspired

 A Little R and R,  No Rules Weekend Blog Party

What We Accomplished, Wow Us Wednesdays
The Weekly Creative

Thoughtful Thursday,  Hearts4Home Thursdays, Thought Provoking Thursday

Thriving Thursdays with Serving Joyfully

Thursday Favorites, Desire to Inspire Legacy Leaver Thursday

Creative Things, Bloom! Soul Survival

 

Blessings!

Patsy