{"id":18410,"date":"2014-03-11T00:30:07","date_gmt":"2014-03-11T04:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=18410"},"modified":"2014-03-10T22:04:21","modified_gmt":"2014-03-11T02:04:21","slug":"poor-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/03\/11\/poor-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"Poor In Spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We have now entered the season of Lent. \u00a0For many Christians, Lent is taken as a time of preparation for the celebration of Easter where God miraculously redeemed mankind by resurrecting His Son from the dead. It is also a time to consider what Jesus said and did; and how we should be living in light of His Words. \u00a0\u271e \u2665<\/p>\n

During this season, here on the Seeking Him<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>devotional blog, we have chosen to focus our devotionals on Jesus\u2019 instructions and admonition communicated in Matthew chapter 6\u2014the Beatitudes. \u00a0Jesus said, \u201cBlessed are\u2026\u201d and He went on to give instruction as to how to be \u201cblessed<\/em>.\u201d \u00a0To be \u2018blessed\u2019 is to \u2018be happy, or to be envied.\u2019 \u00a0Truly for the Christian, we ARE blessed\u2014oh, how very blessed we are! \u00a0Those who observe our lives should clearly be able to tell that we ARE blessed\u2014and that we KNOW it! \u271e \u2665<\/p>\n

Please consider Jesus\u2019 instructions along with us. \u00a0We pray that our words will encourage you and spur you on to be prepare your hearts for the joyous celebration of His Resurrection! \u00a0\u271e \u2665<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.<\/strong><\/span>
\n Matthew 5:3<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus was teaching the lost on the side of a hill. \u00a0As He was speaking all kinds of people surrounded Him—rich, poor, healthy, sick, loved, hated. \u00a0His teaching was for all who would seek Him and His Father.<\/p>\n

In researching and thinking about what “poor in spirit” is, I came acoss a study which stated,<\/p>\n

\n

“Being ‘poor in Spirit’ is to have a humble and broken\/contrite heart
\nthat constantly seeks help and forgiveness
\nfrom God for their very existence.”
\n(Biblesco: Free Inductive Bible Study Lessons)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

From the beginning of time, God has wanted a unique relationship with His people. When the\u00a0people of Israel kept refusing to follow God’s leading, He would bring punishments upon them. \u00a0Sometimes these were very painful and then He would show mercy. \u00a0The people would repent and turn back to Him for a period of time but would fall back into the old familiar patterns of behavior.<\/p>\n

Then\u00a0God decided it was right for His Son Jesus to come and live among us for a period of time. \u00a0The life Jesus lived among us was fantastic. \u00a0He obeyed His earthly parents, His Heavenly Father, and learned at the feet of His local teachers. \u00a0When\u00a0it was time for Jesus to begin His ministry, He\u00a0sought to give it to the Jewish people. \u00a0The Pharisees and Saducees had hardened hearts and rejected God’s truth, but Jesus did not stop sharing. \u00a0They were more about revenge and keeping rules than in showing grace and mercy toward others. \u00a0These people had long since forgotten what it was like to have a ‘humble, contrite heart’.<\/p>\n

* ~ \u2665\u00a0~\u00a0\u271e<\/strong>\u00a0~ \u2665~ *<\/span><\/p>\n

As we prepare our hearts for the Easter season let us try to remember the sacrifice He made for us. \u00a0Let us remember to be humble and obedient to God’s word and leading of the Holy Spirit. \u00a0He will honor us when we honor Him and His Son.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have now entered the season of Lent. \u00a0For many Christians, Lent is taken as a time of preparation for the celebration of Easter where God miraculously redeemed mankind by resurrecting His Son from the dead. It is also a time to consider what Jesus said and did; and how we should be living in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[127,3367,1287,425,5775,1397,5776,5774,3174,1071],"class_list":["post-18410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-beatitudes","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-humble-and-contrite-heart","tag-matthew-53","tag-poor-in-spirit","tag-prepare-hearts","tag-seeking-him-devotional","tag-tina-marin","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-4MW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18410"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18455,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18410\/revisions\/18455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}