Monday... Is it good or bad to be poor?

Monday... Is it good or bad to be poor? Good question.

The writer of Proverbs 30 in verses 8b & 9 (NLT) says, "give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, 'Who is the Lord?' And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God's holy name."

Now that is a wise thing to ask. We may when we are rich deny God because we believe we don't need Him and then the same in being poor, we go out and steal. Both of those actions are not wise. Also throughout Proverbs it deals with laziness and poverty. And that also is not a good thing.

But then Jesus over in His first beatitude in Matthew 5:3 says, "God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for Him for the kingdom of heaven in theirs." It all comes down to dependency. God blesses those who are dependent on Him and not on themselves.

The Message says, "You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule."

Now you can be rich and blessed. God uses rich people who use their riches for God and His kingdom. Those who see needs and do something about them use their riches in a right way. And you can be poor and very rich. Our being dependent on God makes all the difference. Over and over it says that God will take care of us. Over in Psalm 120:1 (NLT) it says, "I took my troubles to the Lord; I cried out to him and he answered my prayer."

Now this first beatitude is really talking about being poor in spirit. The Amplified Bible says, "Blessed [spiritually prosperous, happy, to be admired] are poor in spirit [those devoid of spiritual arrogance, those who regard themselves as insignificant] for theirs is the kingdom of heaven [both now and forever]."

And that is a poor that God blesses. That is the right kind of poor, one who is dependent upon God. Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning

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