Have you ever had a day or a season when you feel at the end of your rope? You’ve worked, you’ve tried, you’ve given your all – and you just keep coming up short? Perhaps you are just tired…weary…exhausted from daily life.

You want to be strong, full of life, whole and healthy, a conduit of God’s Presence – but you feel empty, dry, spiritually poor – you pull out your pockets and find you have nothing to give. Would you believe me if I told you that you do?

That the one thing you have is the only thing you need to bring to God? In fact, the only thing that He wants from you?

Blessed Are The Poor in Spirit

My pastor preached at church on Sunday about the Church of Laeodocia. This church might have been materially rich, but they were spiritually poor.

The problem was – they didn’t know it. God counseled them in this way: “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.” — Revelation 3:17-18

If they were truly spiritually bankrupt, with what could they “buy from him” the true riches of Heaven? As my pastor pointed out so thoughtfully – their currency was their need.

Nothing in My Hand I Bring

The one thing God wants us to bring Him is our need. It’s true! In fact, He says, “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” – Isaiah 66:2

Your weakness unlocks God’s strength. Your emptiness invites God’s fullness. Your brokenness invites God’s healing.

Sometimes I think we want to bring ourselves to God already perfected – you know, like a pretty package with a neatly tied bow. But we can’t… We’re a mess. We know it and He knows it.

Good News for the Poor

When we feel we can’t even pray, when we can’t seem to lift our gaze His way, that is the very moment we need Him most. If you are empty, dry, broken, and spiritually poor today -you are in the perfect place to meet with God.

Bring your heart and all its empty, broken places before God. As the Psalm says so beautifully,”Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.” – Psalm 62:8

Here’s some very good news for us poor souls: Jesus is here and He wants “to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.” — Isaiah 61:3

So if you feel you’ve got nothing to give God today, don’t let that hold you back. It’s the broken He accepts. It’s the humble He hears. It’s the wounded He can heal.