"Blessed are the poor in spirit:
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
- Matthew 5:3

I discovered the reason why God's blessings are out of reach for many Christians.

They are reaching for the wrong place.

Tonight, I went over to the cabinet in our kitchen looking for some sandwich spread.  I looked on each shelf from about waist on up.  I even stood on the tips of my toes and looked on the very top shelf.

And I came up empty-handed. 

Then, it occurred to me that I should look on the lower shelves.  I bent down and checked the shelf.  Nothing.  I went lower and there I discovered the sandwich spread.

And it hit me, many people approach God's blessings much like I searched for a late night snack...

...they think they can find them by standing tall, when they should be stooping low.

F.B. Meyer said it this way, "I used to think that God's gifts were on shelves one above another and the taller we grow, the easier we can reach them.  Now I find that God's gifts are on shelves one beneath another and the lower we stoop, the more we get."

One of the most difficult things in life is to resist the urge to be selfish and prideful.  Everything around us says to "Look out for #1."   The world says "Blessed are the good-looking, the wealthy, the athletic, thebrave, the prominent."

Jesus said "blessed are the poor in spirit." 

That simply means blessed are the HUMBLE.  The real key to finding true happiness in the Lord is found in humility.

It's a difficult thing to push aside praise and glory and recognition and give honor to the One who makes our successes and accomplishments possible.  It's not easy casting aside our own agenda and our own plans and our own wills and submit ourselves to the purpose of the King.  It takes an effort to not be self-centered and to not demand our way, but in humility put the needs and well-being of others above that of our own.

It's not easy to be "poor in spirit."  And that's probably why God's blessings are out of many Christians' reach today.  They are reaching high, when Jesus calls them to stoop low.

Are you experiencing the blessings of God?  Want more of them?  Then bend your knees.  Search those bottom shelves.  Stoop low.

And then you'll find the sandwich spread you've been looking for.

Have a "Wonderful DAY in Christ,"
Jimmy D. Brown
\o/ Praise Jesus!