Breaking Out of Spiritual Poverty

So in our last post we began talking about the abundant resource of God's grace and the ways in which we use it to enter into a redeemed life, now here on earth...before we die.  We talked about grace being two-fold.  It is a means of forgiveness and an abundant resource for living a life characterized by Christ.




Paul says in Romans 6:20

But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way!

This means we might need to consider how we may be returning to our personal places of spiritual poverty and how we may be guarding the door to our internal slum. To live under the first grace (forgiveness of sins) and not the second grace (abundant resources from heaven) is just like getting a job and returning to the slums (see the previous posts)  - we have the resources but make little or no use of them, or we see opportunity for help but we don't trust it enough to let it in.  We are impoverished by sin and bound to its sway.   I mean after all, “We are only human - right?” We can't help ourselves!  ...or can we?


Could it be that we lack a vision for anything better and simply choose not to give holiness much effort?  If grace is in scarce supply who can blame us?  …But it isn't...When we seek to be like Jesus without, well..JESUS, then it becomes a very frustrating, discouraging, laborious process.  And sadly, many Christian circles, though well intended, have done just that.  Which is why many of you, like me, have at times resorted to giving up and resigning to the fact that we are imperfect people (true) and live at the mercy of a perfect God (also true), and if we're lucky He might like us. 

IF we are uncertain if God likes us or not, then it stands to reason we would guard the door to our heart (our inward "slum").  We hide our sin or avoid spiritual conversations or feedback because we aren't sure it's safe.  We may see an opportunity for restoration on the horizon but it feels threatening so we say, “Keep out!” Sometimes we can remain stuck in a mindset that does not have room for grace which means there’s isn't any room for love either….scarcity (see previous post)

 The life we are invited into is more than a botched collection of years filled with eraser marks era-tagged with forgiveness.   The life we are called into is HIS – Christ CAME.  He dared to darken the door of our impoverished ways, make a home among the sewage with us, and offered us a way out.  We are loved out of the slums.  

 And over time, as we make His love our new home, we are able to live our life in responsive obedience to Him.  We become His conduit for love towards others.  It often requires His grace-fuel to energize us into action. But, surprisingly, it is not burdensome.  We discover the unforced rhythms of grace as we watch Christ and begin to work with Him and find ourselves yoked to the one whose ways are not without struggle but whose presence makes the journey easy and light.  This, my friends, is the gospel!  We are forever, and always WITH him and He is forever and always WITH us.  God is forever wooing us out of our impoverished ways and into the riches of His good and loving Kingdom...because He likes us...Abundance!

SO here are a few questions (and it is as much for me as it is for anyone else):

What areas of your life are still impoverished?

How might you be operating from a viewpoint of scarcity instead of abundance?

How might you be returning to the slums? 

In what way do you desire to experience God’s love or restoration right where you are?

AND… here’s a tough one…. How might you be guarding the slums of your heart, preventing that love and restoration from coming in?


What are some things you can do to make some changes today?