Ask God to show you where you are weak. Being in touch with your spiritual poverty is a gift from Him because you can begin to partner with God during the growth process and because it accomplishes the purposes of His kingdom. To grow closer to God, ask Him to bless you with spiritual poverty for “theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).
Be honest. Look closely at those negative things you might be avoiding. Take a truthful look at your past and present life. Look for patterns of avoiding pain, denying problems, staying away from hurtful people, and trying to put a positive spin on negative things in your life. Be honest about tendencies to shy away from need and to move towards self-sufficiency. Realize that spiritual poverty is actually a blessed state and the only way to receive God’s growth and healing. Adopt that attitude towards yourself and God.
Read what the Bible has to say about spiritual poverty. Look up terms such as poor in spirit, needy, and brokenhearted, and learn what the Bible teaches about them. Look up the dynamics of God’s relationship with Israel in the Old Testament. God was not pleased when Israel was rebellious and unconcerned with His ways. When Israel cried out for help and mercy, God was tender and listened to them. Notice the difference how Jesus dealt with those who were wanting and needy, and those who thought very highly of themselves like the Pharisees, the religious people of His day. The Bible provides a great amount of evidence that spiritual poverty is an essential element of growth.
Ask for feedback from others. A common characteristic of hungry people is that they surround themselves with others to help them with their dependency towards God. For them, the Christian life is one in which people get together, share their vulnerabilities, and fill each other up. Begin to own your issues of weakness and neediness and ask God and others to help work them out. Confess and admit you can’t change them in your own power, and that you need outside resources to help you.
Seek out your brokenness with your whole heart. Let the experience affect the heart, not just be another lesson of the mind. Realizing our condition before God is an overwhelmingly emotional experience, involving negative feelings such as dependence, grief, and remorse. Our goal is to become integrated, having the heart and the head in agreement with each other. Seeking this experience is seeking God: “But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if you look for Him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 4:29). God likes our neediness. Take a step of faith and open your soul to God and safe people. Spiritual poverty is the only way to be filled with what He has for us.
Our task is to accept that we already are poor and in need, whether we already know it or not.
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