Be spiritually bankrupt

In Ephesians 2:8-10 Paul writes, "For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves; it is a gift from God, not by works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

No acts of kindness, no chanting repetitive prayers, no amount of tithe, or good works will make you worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus is the only way. Having faith in Jesus alone and by God's grace, will you be saved from His wrath and make you worthy. Why? Because people will boast about how kind they were, how many times they repeated a prayer over and over again, or how much money they gave to the church or charity, and boast about works to make yourself holy will not gain you access into Heaven and your sins will not be forgiven. Salvation is a gift that can only be given from God Himself so no one can boast and He gets all the glory.

The works we do are preordained and predestined by God for His glory. We have the privilege to be used by Him. To be His hands, His feet, His mouth to be used for His purposes. For example. I once saw a picture of Robert Downey Jr. on Facebook that talked about his past. I remember because back in the day I thought it was so unfair that he got away with all his drug use and wild life and got a slap on the hand from the law. He even got sponsored by the shoe brand Sketchers and for a time I boycotted that shoe brand. But now that he is a big shot movie star, he donates a lot of money, helps a lot of people and he is drug free. I think that is good and all but is for the glory of Robert Downey Jr. or the glory of God? Sure not for the glory of God. Are these works to make that himself look good preordained and predestined by the Lord. No. This is just an example because there are people even who go to church that do very good things and everybody thinks they are so swell. But they do it for their own glory.

In Matthew 5:3, Jesus says that blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. What does it mean to be poor in spirit? To be poor in spirit is to recognize your utter spiritual bankruptcy before God. It is admitting that because of our sins we can not do anything to save ourselves from our dire situation. Jesus taught that no matter your status in life, you must recognize your spiritual poverty before you can come to God in faith to receive the salvation He offers. Before we can receive salvation, we must understand that we can't make ourselves worthy through works. Only by grace through faith.