At least I can afford heat and cooled air!

Matthew 5:3  3″You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

I was talking with a friend about a book that we were both re-reading, “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.” The heroine of the book is an eleven-year old girl, she is very poor and her one extravagance is holding her cup of coffee in the mornings to warm her hands, which are so cold in an unheated apartment. As I thought of it, I thought about that fact that growing up our family was really pretty poor most of the time. A preacher’s pay is not great, or wasn’t before the day of mega churches where pastors are driven in limousines, and there were times that he would give his entire pay check back to the church to pay the bills.  But we never had a “poor” mentality. I realized that being financially challenged and being poor is two different things. God always provided for us, when there was no money, there would be someone that brought us something good to eat. Mother kept our clothes clean and pressed, even our shoelaces, and the shoes had a shine on them. When we moved to Atlanta we received some good government surplus peanut butter and cheese that came in brown paper boxes. We never felt poor not at all; it never dawned on us to feel poor. God always provided for us and we were always happy. So after going through all of this in my mind, I thought of the scripture that I put at the top of this Blog and when I really studied it, I understood. The Message translation 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.” Read that over and over until it dawns on you that being at the end of your rope you realize that there is nothing that you, in your own power can do to change your circumstances, the answer lies in God alone. That kind of takes the pressure off, if you think of it that way. I know there is nothing I can do to make my life better, happier, richer but God, Who knows all, has the answer, not just the answer but the solution for my problems, and yours!

I would rather be poor and know that I will inherit the Kingdom of God than to have all the riches in the world!