Paupers?

"Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God." Romans 11:33...."My God, look at all the riches there were in Jesus Christ, and I come to the judgement seat almost a pauper." A.W. Tozer

The Bible speaks often and deeply about the riches to be found in the Father, in His Son Christ, and that these riches, our inheritance in Him, are sealed by the Holy Spirit. Can there be any more wonderful guarantee than this? Yet, here sit so many of us in the condition Tozer speaks of. A condition that will be fully revealed on that day when we, those who call Him Savior and King, have to stand before Him and give account for how we have squandered those riches, or never partaken of them at all, throughout our lives. Why did we? How could we? Yet we do. We know we do.

Part of it is certainly explained by the fact that we've bought the enemy's lie that we cannot experience His riches in this life. That's for eternity, which he cons us into believing starts after we die. Christ's truth is that His eternal life is made available to us right here, right now, for all who trust and believe in His name. The devil convinces us that all that is available to us are sips and nibbles of His living water and bread. He gets us to live on table scraps, and all the while He sets a spiritual feast before us, but we don't know or believe that its there.

A bigger part is that we value the food and water of this world far more than we do His. Witness the hoarding of supplies in our current pandemic. We grasp all we can while we can. We can't believe that the One who offers spiritual bread and water would also see to our receiving the physical as well. The result is the constant strain and anxiety of whether there will be enough. Enough money, enough resources, enough of what we need. We lose sight, indeed, we never see, that He is, in all things, more than enough. We cannot believe that He will take what is not enough and make out of it an abundance. So we continue to live in the place of worry, anxiety and fear. We continue to be paupers, begging in the street, when we could be at His table, partaking of His riches.

I know both sides of this. I have been His son living as a pauper, worrying, fearing, that there wouldn't be enough. Stressed to the breaking point under all of the pressure. Worried that all would be lost, and seeking to make a way out for myself, and failing miserably in it. I don't have space to tell you of all the times He delivered me in spite of my unbelief, but I'll tell you of the time He finally was able to set me free from my pauper lifestyle: Our church was struggling mightily financially. Less than a year before He had opened the door in a miraculous way to purchase a home. Now, our income was such that I could not receive my housing allowance in full. My salary was meager. How would I pay my mortgage? I, and the leaders in the church decided two things. We'd be faithful in the stewardship of our finances, and the church would as well. We continued on, and here's the glory of it all; I did not receive more than $5000 of that allowance that year, yet I never missed a mortgage payment. How? I can't tell you. I can only tell you that when the payment came due, the money was there. Greater than that though was that along with His supply was the outpouring of His constant peace, joy, and expectation in all of it. The church recovered, the shortfall was eventually made up, and God showed Himself faithful in all of it. I stopped being a pauper. By His grace, I want to remain so.

If we were to appear before Him today, in what state would we be? Especially as regards our living in the midst of the riches He has provided? May we not be living as paupers and orphans while all the while surrounded by His riches and promises. They are infinite, and they are ours. Are you living in that truth? May we not have to answer one day as to why, in our need, we didn't think He was enough?

Blessings,
Pastor O