SPIRITUAL POVERTY

“Jesus answered them and said, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.’”  (John 6:26-27)

There’s no end to the stuff that can be conceived. We go into debt to buy more and more of it. So why do we still feel empty? Your garage, your basement, and your storage unit may all be packed, and still you feel empty. It’s a little like eating a big meal. You feel full at first, but it’s not going to last. You’ll always need the next meal, the next purchase, the next jolt of brief fullness.

We’re trying to fill the cavity of the soul with things that won’t fit. Mother Teresa once said, “The spiritual poverty of the Western world is much greater than the physical poverty of our people in Calcutta. You in the West have millions of people who suffer such terrible loneliness and emptiness… These people are not hungry in the physical sense, but they are in another way. They know they need something more than money, yet they don’t know what it is. What they are missing really is a living relationship with God.” (from “Life in the Spirit: Reflections, Meditations, Prayers”) 

-- Kyle Idleman in “The End of Me: Where Real Life in the Upside-Down Ways of Jesus Begins”

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