Power Through The Grace Of Mourning

When we hit the wall of our own poverty, our inability to produce what we long for, we find ourselves facing an even more difficult step of humility – that of mourning over the condition in which we find ourselves. We’ll say this again in subsequent postings, but mourning over our brokenness is really a lost art in our culture. Because we want to have positive feelings about ourselves, we tend to avoid the deep self-examination that faces us with our own poverty, our inability to move forward on our own. We would rather try again by making a career change or altering our marital status. We’d rather read a new self-help book (maybe someone has discovered the magic formula!), try a new church, or perhaps medicate ourselves in some deeper and more damaging way.

But Jesus has given us the way forward, and it requires a significant choice for humility on our part. We must come to the place of mourning, grieving over our condition. This mourning requires a season of reflection, considering the things we have missed out on, the relationships we have lost, the opportunities that have passed us by. We must face the reality of our own choices that have irreparably damaged us and those around us. Most significantly, we must face the anguish that we have brought to God, who created us for His own great pleasure, but to whom we have brought nothing but pain.

Though this is a difficult posture to take, the reward is proportional to the cost. Those who mourn will be comforted. In other words, the pain that we all feel when we consider the broken condition of our lives will be assuaged, and we will know the comfort of the one who has the authority to give it at the deepest possible levels.

Power Through Spiritual Poverty

Every human being knows – unless that knowledge has been blunted by circumstances – that he or she ought to be someone important, that others ought to take notice, and that their life should mean something beyond the mundane realities of daily existence. Greatness is in our design, having been built into us by the Designer Himself, our Father God.

The surprising thing is that the path to greatness is opposite of what is intuitive to our fallen human nature. We think greatness comes by effort, by good planning, and by being willing to do whatever it takes to overcome the obstacles in our way. In God’s Kingdom economy, however, there is a different path. It begins with poverty of spirit.

In Matthew 5, Jesus lays out the Kingdom way to greatness, and begins with this phrase: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” Spoken at the very beginning of His earthly ministry, Jesus then proceeds to live out this principle all through His time on the earth by living in complete dependence upon His Father in Heaven through the power of the Holy Spirit.

He takes the posture of a servant (see Mark 9:35; Philippians 2:7), does nothing without seeing and hearing what the Father is doing (see John 5:19-20; 8:28), and lays down His life for His friends in love (see John 15:13). In other words, Jesus comes to greatness by being fully dependent on the Father’s will and direction by the Holy Spirit.

The basic issue for us is that we find it hard to believe that the Father wants greatness for us, and that He will bring us to greatness if we will follow His lead by the Spirit. Instead, we tend to take over our own situations because we think we know best, and find ourselves grasping in futility for the very thing He promises to give by grace.

Here’s my prayer today: Father, I want to live a powerful life today, but I can do nothing without Your presence and power in my life. Lead me by Your Spirit into the situations You have prepared for me, give me Your words of wisdom, Your strategies for serving, and grant me the courage to trust Your ways, just as Jesus did.

Amen.