Poor and Needy

You will never get anything from God unless you are poor and needy, and approach him that way. So am I saying that you have to be financially destitute to get anywhere with God? Of course not. I’ve seen and talked to many homeless people who were not poor and needy, and had no intention whatsoever of accepting any real help at all. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Mat. 5:3). Being poor and needy has nothing to do with one’s worldly state. Being ‘poor in spirit’ is knowing what you need to be and what you need to do, and knowing that you can’t get it done without God’s mercy and help. It’s also knowing that you don’t know what you need to be and do, and knowing that you'll never know unless God makes it known to you. Another thing is that people who are truly poor and needy, act like they are poor and needy. They constantly seek God’s help, intervention, strength, knowledge, love, peace, etc., so that they can be what they should be, and be able to do what they need to do to glorify God. David was the king over God’s people and the greatest man in the earth in his day. He had riches, wives, children, houses, lands, an army, wise counselors, and everything else he wanted or needed; yet he continually expressed to the Lord that he was poor and needy: “But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O Lord, make no tarrying” (Psm. 70:5). He was poor in spirit, and he knew that everything he had and was, and what he needed to be, and to be able to do, was continually dependent on God’s mercy, wisdom, and power. You can also rest assured that there were beggars in the street in David’s day who appeared poor and needy, but were not minded to rely totally on God as David did.

The blind man Bartimaeus was a good example of being poor and needy. Not only was he blind and a beggar, but he was determined to get Jesus to tend to his need. He also refused to let anything or anyone deter him from that. Of course the result was that Jesus restored to him his sight (Mk. 10:46-52). How many blind men and beggars do you suppose just let Jesus pass on by? We don’t hear about them, and that is because they let Jesus pass by without desperately expressing their need and pursuing him till the need was met. They just weren’t poor and needy enough, and therefore they didn’t act like it. I couldn’t count the people that I’ve given my testimony of miraculous deliverance to, who were in great need and under the same bondage that I was delivered from; who just basically shrugged it off, or tried to act like they already had everything they needed. One thing’s for sure: They will never have their needs met, and be delivered from their vices and bondage as long as they aren’t willing to think or act like they are poor and needy. When I came before God many years ago, I was under bondage to a number of things that I knew I couldn’t get out of on my own, or by any help of man. When I asked the Lord to take those things out of my life, I was desperate and fully aware of my need, and he delivered me from it all! And that is the path I have continued on ever since then. God has done great and mighty things for me beyond telling, and I can assure you that I am poorer and needier today than I was those many years ago. I am very content in the state that the Lord has brought me to, but I’m not content to stay there and coast. "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philip. 3:13,14). Amen and Amen!