where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
This is why poverty, hunger, and sadness can be beneficial. They are reminders to seek what is above. They are reminders that the things of this world are never enough. Of course, neither poverty, nor hunger, nor sadness are good in themselves. They can be to our benefit only if they help us to remember to seek what is above. This is how we can be rich even now in the midst of worldly squalor.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
If this is true, and it is, than imagine what riches are ours.
For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas
or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours,
and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s (cf. 1 Cor. 3:22-23).
We all experience small poverties. Let's not waste them. Let them be reminders to us to lift our eyes to the things above. When we do we experiences the riches that are ours in Christ. What sort of riches are these?
that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints (cf. Eph. 1:18)
that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (cf. Eph. 2:4)
that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (cf. Eph. 3:16)
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus (cf. Phi. 4:19)
These riches are not external things. They are the promise of power of Jesus dwelling in us.
the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (cf. Col. 1:27).
They are both the hope of glory and the foretaste of it. Jesus becomes poor and takes on our humanity so that we can become rich (cf. 2 Cor. 8:9) and take on the divine nature (cf. 2 Pet. 1:4).
Compared to this, what are poverty, hunger, and sadness? Let's ask ourselves how we are experiencing poverty this morning. Where is this world coming up short for us? Where are we suffering? These very things can help us to lift our gaze and seek what is above. These can help us to experience the power of Christ in us even now. This is can help us to avoid the trap of filling up on the riches and consolations of this world. How terrible to be so full of the things of this world that we have no desire for the promise of Christ in us, the promise of being partakers of the divine nature, for the riches that are ours in Jesus.
To really experience these riches we must live lives centered in heaven where they are hidden with Christ, "since you have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator." These riches are already ours. We just need to be who we are in Christ. We need to live from the deepest place of our identity in him. What is poverty, hunger, or sadness compared to this joy? What are even the greatest worldly riches by comparison? Let us seek what is above!
Your Kingdom is a Kingdom for all ages,
and your dominion endures through all generations.
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