POVERTY MENTALITY IS NOT FOR YOU

This is a parable about the poverty mentality of the old covenant and in the austerity mode of Try-Harder Religion.
 
POVERTY OUTLOOK
 
Go to some people’s houses and you swelter in the summer and freeze in the winter. They are too into austerity to use their air-conditioners or heaters. In the natural, you can live in a poverty mentality when you are not poor. But you don’t have to. You don’t have to be a miser or the closest thing to it. To be miserly is to be one step above misery, yet make a virtue of it. Conserving things because one loves the earth is different to being sparse because one is a miser. To live from law is to live the miser life. To live Christ our life is to live abundantly in the fullness of you as an expression of Christ.
 
A poverty mentality is a mindset that has you believing that the future is capricious and that you are on your own. You believe there is never enough and there will never be enough. So you must live to prevent the sky falling. Like the man who forbad dancing because it could be the thing edge of the wedge.  Sadly religion can be the thin edge of being dormant if our religion is the wrong one.
 
SCARCITY AS NORMAL
 
Poverty thinking - living with a scarcity outlook when you have more than enough, has you hanging on go your stuff as though your life depends on it. Sadly, the life of your psyche does. If you are not hoarding useless objects and irrelevant pieces of debris you are living in the fear that some burglar is about to make off with your precious stuff. But in this case, your stuff is not only your security. The bits and pieces are part of your sense of self. You are what you have and what you do. This is why Christ needs to our life rather than we and our religion thinking to be our life.
 
We can cling to religion because that’s all we have – our routines and formulae. But unless we are willing to lose all we have, we do not participate in the fullness of life that is Christ our life.
 
In a deep poverty mentality we are in fear that we may not only have enough to eat. And we fear that no one will love us. In the first fear we cling to our things. With the second fear we cling to our reputation. A reputation that we may attempt to build and to bolster as the means to earn love – which is a kind of respect. There is merit in doing a job well. And a great vulnerability in earning your self-worth from your work. Particularly are we vulnerable to manipulation if we are over industriousness, and a workaholic based on the hearts cry ‘Please see me working. Value me and love me for what I do!’
 
THE OPPRESSED POOR
 
We are vulnerable in this mindset because what we do will never be enough for ourselves. And for others – they just don’t care that much. But are happy enough if your labour makes their life easier. This is the stance of many principals and bosses.
 
PERFORMANCE ILLNESS
 
In a spiritual poverty mentality our family is vulnerable. Vulnerable because  the inordinate time we invest in others is time we are not investing in those we love and who love us. We are vulnerable too because we are more prone to heart disease and mental illness.
 
This post is not about people who are actually poor. It’s about middle-income people who tell themselves they are poor. Like when we are living in law and old covenant separation blind to the fact that our wealth is union with God.
 
RICHES IN CHRIST
 
‘When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory’ Col 3.4 NIV. Christ has appeared in the world and now Christ lives in you to be woven into you.
 
Spiritually speaking you are not poor. You are rich in Christ. His life is your life. His position with Father and Holy Spirit is your fellowship in the Holy Family. His eternal life is your eternal life. You are a king and a priest in Jesus. A King because you can always reign over circumstances and the Enemy and a priest because you are the representative of God to the non-believer.
 
You have a bank deposit that is bulging with gold bullion. This treasure is the vicarious humanity of Jesus – His life as yours in every possible way.
 
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” Matt 11.28-30 NIV.