“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs are the kingdom of heaven.” Matt 5:3
In A.W. Tozer’s book the pursuit of God he dedicates a chapter to the subject of ‘The blessedness of Possessing nothing’, the first beattitude. He here explains that the Lord prepared for man a world full of useful things for his delight, thing made for man’s use. But that these things have over thousands of years become more and more important to man and have become part of the man’s heart, taking the space in its heart which was created for God to reign in and were only he was worthy to go.
As we however know, we live in this sinful world and as a result of sin the very gifts that God has given us has became the things that has pulled us away from God. Because of sin we have allowed things to become the rulers in our hearts and God no longer sits on the thrown. In Matt 16: 24-25 Jesus explains how God feels about these things in our lives and what he wants us to do.
“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever saves his life shall lose it: and whoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it”
If we want to follow Jesus we need to lose everything. We need to give up our whole life, only then shall we find life, but if we try to save our life holding on to these things we shall lose it. When Matt talks about the poor in spirit he refers to the people who are no longer slaves to the things of this world and for which they have no more value. They are truly blessed and the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs!
God wants our hearts for himself and does not want to share it with anything or anybody. He wants to be the sole ruler in our hearts, but cannot do this if he is sharing it with something else. We see in the Old Testament how this is illustrated in the story of Abraham. Abraham and Sarah had a son called Isaac, which was given to Abraham by God. Along with this he promises Abraham that through Isaac his descendants would become as many as the stars. Abraham loved Isaac very much, he loved him so much that God had to make sure that Isaac was not an idol in Abrahams heart, so he commanded him to sacrifice his beloved son. The pain must have been unthinkable for Abraham knowing that he had to sacrifice the son through whom God promised him as many descendants as the starts. How could he reconcile Gods promise with the order from God? It was simple, he would sacrifice Isaac and God would then raise him from the dead. As we all know Abraham was obedient and God stopped him just before he followed through with the deed. But by Abraham’s act of obedience God knew that he had Abraham’s whole heart and that Abraham was willing to give everything to him.
In our life’s there are many things that we so dearly hold on too, but after reading this book I asked myself the question. What in my life am I not willing to give up! What am I not willing to lose for His sake and what is preventing God from being the only ruler of my heart. Each of us can ask ourselves this same question. What in my life, am I not willing to give to God. Whether it’s securities or people. We need to ask God what is preventing Him from ruling 100% in our heart and we need to go through the painful process of pulling it from our hearts like a thorn from our flesh. It will not be easy and it will hurt, but should we go through this painful process, we might experience God even more in his fullness and experience the blessings of a surrendered life fully devoted to Him!