“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” (Luke 6:20, NIV2)

“Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (Mark 10:21b, NIV2)

What does this truly mean? Do we have to be poor to be part of the Kingdom of God? But then, we could ask ourselves: What would we be willing to give up in order to really know Jesus?

“But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything-all she had to live on.'” (Mark 12:42-44, NIV2)

The poor widow had a heart after God. She wanted to experience God more intimately than ever before. She was willing to give up not only the money she needed to survive, she was willing to offer all of herself for Him.

Do we hunger for our Heavenly Father as much as she did?

Would we be willing to give all we have to know Him?

Truly where is our treasure?

I am not necessarily advocating for anyone to sell everything they have and give it away, unless our Dad commands it, that is. I am just wondering how much we truly hunger for the presence of God in our lives.

There used to be a mean individual that our interim pastor knew personally. He beat his wife mercilessly day in and day out, especially when he was drunk. One day his young son took his dad’s shotgun. He was tired of seeing his mom turning into a boxing bag. He aimed the gun on his dad and begged for him to stop the beating. His dad turned to him and defied him with these words: “Are you man enough to even shoot me?” The gun fired and the bullet went through the head of this vicious man.

Amazingly enough, he survived. He needed a lot of facial reconstruction, he lost an eye, and he ended up with an ugly sneer on his face. Eventually he heard about Jesus. He was tired of his life of abuse and started taking bible studies at a nearby church.

During one such study, one of the attendees asked himself: “Was Jesus joyful when he was dying on the cross?”

The pastor himself didn’t know how to answer this question, and neither did the other attendees. The man that used to be a woman beater stood up and with tears in his eyes answered: “He sure was, because He saw me here in church today.”

His life changed radically after he began knowing Jesus, the Christ. No way would he ever go back to his former lifestyle. He had found the source of true happiness.

Again I wonder: Where is our source of joy?

Rob Chaffart

(To access the entire “Kingdom of Power” devotional series, please click here.)