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One Pastor's Advice: Blessed Are the Needy

Near the weak, that’s one of the easiest places to find God. The socially awkward, the never-quite-got-it-right, the sick, the loony, the brokenhearted and the embarrassing are some of his best friends. I forgot to mention the annoying, but they are also in Jesus’ inner circle.

It’s one of the complicated parts of walking with God. Complicated because just being with awkward or annoying people can be really difficult. Complicated because as a person grows in love for God, one will eventually grow in love for the things that God loves — and God loves people.

Now to be fair, God loves the rich and powerful too. In fact he loves them just as much as he loves single moms who barely make bills. He’s equal opportunity. The trouble is that the rich and powerful aren’t aware that they need God. They think they need a better financial advisor, a longer vacation, a swing coach or a remodeled bathroom. God never really makes the list, and so he isn’t invited, leaving him silent, standing in the room.

That’s one of the great, mind-bending facts of life — God never leaves the room, for anyone.

Our circumstances are all opportunities to recognize our need for God. The weak generally have no trouble coming to this logical conclusion, but the perfectly matched struggle to make the connection even though their blessedness calls for the same answer.

When the bank account is zero and there are bills to be paid, or when we end up with an unexpected diagnosis, our need for God gets highlighted with florescent brightness, but blessing has a way of clouding our judgement.

Make no mistake, blessing is a florescent color! Blessing opens doors and brings possibilities that we never imagined. Suddenly we’re living in unknown realms where we are being stretched — and the point of the stretching, at least in part, is for us to recognize our need for God. Sadly, we sometimes believe that we are the source of our blessing — that our strength, intellect and talent have brought us to this place. We become the center, and move God to the side. Our awareness of him becomes dull, even though he is near. We begin living in a delusion, one of our own making.

If you are weak, cry out to God. If you are living next to an annoying neighbor, look close, God is there. And if you are blessed beyond measure, look out! Blessing is about to open up doors to realms where yesterday’s answers don’t work in quite the same way, a place where our need of him is exposed, if we can see it …