At-Home Family Devotion 1

Week One Devotion

Heavenly Father, your love for us knows no end. While our spiritual need is great, your mercy is so much greater. Help us look not to ourselves, but to the abundance of your grace which you have shown in your Son. For you alone can provide the blessings we need. Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord. Amen.

2. Read Scripture

• Recall the theme text together: Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
• Read the illustrative text together: Luke 18:9-14 
• Theme Connection: Two men enter the temple for prayer, only one leaves justified. It was the one who was “spiritually poor” who was justified. Key to understanding this blessing is understanding what Jesus means by “poor in spirit.” In this context, one should lean into the idea of “poor” as being in need. Financially poor people need money. Someone who does a poor job needs to put more effort/skill into the endeavor. Likewise, to be “poor in spirit” carries the idea of need spiritually. That is to say, they are spiritually destitute, without resources, and without what one needs in the spiritual realm. And, like a poor beggar looks to someone else to supply for his need, so too spiritually poor people naturally turn to another to fill their spiritual lack. To be sure, in a sense, all people are spiritually poor, as all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Which makes it all the more true to say that all are blessed because of Christ. He comes for all sinners. BUT those who recognize their need and turn to him, are the ones who realize the blessings that he gives. 

3. Connect, Reflect and Discuss

• Students: Start by sharing what you took away from chapel and family life groups this week. How has your understanding of this verse been shaped?
• Everyone: Share times or ways which you have identified with the tax collector in this story. Then share times you have felt like the Pharisee.
• Everyone: Share some ways you struggle to self justify yourself. How might you let those things go, by looking to the grace Jesus offers?

4. Dig Deeper
(Use these prompts as discussion starters to help guide conversation.)

• Read together: Ephesians 2:1-10
  • How do these verses relate to the idea of what Jesus describes in the blessing of the spiritually poor?
  • How do these verses help us understand our spiritual poorness?
  • How does the promise of “immeasurable riches of grace” (Eph. 2:7) provide blessing in the present?

5. Close with a Prayer

Jesus, thank you for the abundance of your grace. Let me always look to how good you are. Let me always remember how good you have been. Let me ever cling to your certain promises of how good you will always be. Amen.