The greatest poverty of all is not physical poverty (as
profound as that is in our world) but spiritual poverty, poverty of spirit and
of the soul. It is the poverty of being
out of fellowship with our creator!
Satan delights in spiritual poverty for he knows that it
robs life of its true meaning as men and women made in God’s Image. Anything he
can do to encourage a substitute for the true God He will do. It may be an
alternate definition of truth, the pursuit of stuff and wealth, the
distractions of life or for believers, encouraging us to keep God on the
periphery of our lives rather than in the center. Anything that keeps the
created from the creator is fair game for Satan. For he knows that it is the
creator who brings meaning to the created.
As a mission leader I have the opportunity to travel to many
places in our world and we see first-hand the poverty of spirit that pervades
our fallen world. It is seen in many forms. In India with Hinduism it is
wondering which of the 30 to 40 million Gods one should worship and appease,
never really knowing if you chose the right on. In Buddhism it is the endless
cycle of existence in some form or another until you get it right.
In Islam it
is either a fatalistic fear of God or trying to perform well enough to please
Mohamed. In much of the former communist block it is atheism with no God at
all. In each case there is a spiritual poverty that keeps people in fear or
substitutes some lesser thing for the fullness that only Jesus can offer.
Solomon, with all his possessions understood how empty life
was when lived apart from a relationship with God. In fact, he said that it is
only God Himself who gives us the ability to truly enjoy those things God has
given to us.
“Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat
and drink and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during
the few days of life God has given him – for this is his lot. Moreover, when
God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to
accept his lot and be happy in his work – this is a gift of God. He seldom
reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness
of heart (Ecclesiastes 5:18-20).”
Even those who profess faith in Christ can experience
spiritual poverty when Jesus is not at the center of their lives. It is He who
gives our lives meaning and purpose but unless we are living out His call on
our lives we can experience significant emptiness. Life is more than the
abundance of our possessions, the toys we can accumulate or the leisure we
enjoy. All of those can be gifts of God, according to Solomon but only when God
is at the center for it is He who gives us the ability to truly enjoy all of
life.
How do we defeat Satan’s attempts to diminish our lives? We
keep Jesus at the center of all that we are and all that we do. This includes
nourishing our relationship with Jesus through His Word and prayer, being
attentive to the voice of His spirit in our hearts, using the gifts He has
given for His purposes and the advancement of His Kingdom and loving others as
Jesus loved them. When Jesus is central to all that we do Satan is robbed of
his ability to deprive us of God’s goodness, joy and purpose. Everything that
takes away from our relationship with our Creator should be resisted and
everything that keeps Jesus central in our lives should be embraced.
