6. They Always Find a Higher Step to Climb Up To

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The simple and poor in spirit never promote themselves. They stay meek in a corner quietly enjoying their lot. Then suddenly, they're called to climb up higher from where they are. If you are humble and lowly, you always find something higher to climb up to.

If you are full of pride and full of yourself, you often find yourself on top, with nothing higher to step on. And that top place is often lonely, a loneliness that makes you moody and worsens your character. And besides, that "high place" (a term in the Old Testament where pagans sacrificed to their gods) which you think you deserve because you're the best and greatest, is often just a figment of your imagination.

Jesus once advised his listeners never to assume high positions or self-importance. It's better to always humbly assume a low one so the master of the house may take notice of you and assign you a seat among the important guests. That, instead of assigning yourself a seat among the great, only later to be sent to the back by the master of the house, to the remotest corner or far back, and be humiliated before everyone.

Only the simple and poor in spirit can do that---preferring a seat among the lowly and genuinely enjoying it. The self-centered can never imagine themselves taking a seat of insignificance, having no conspicuous role in an event and will take it all as an offense against him.

Because Christ willingly emptied himself, taking the form of a lowly servant, God "also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

5. Less Expense

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Well, it's obvious that if you have a simple life, you spend less. Your general expenses are pinned to food, shelter and clothing. In fact, your daily spending is pegged on food.

Health? Chances are, you'd spend less for health because simple living entails eating simple and basic foods cooked at home with less chemicals and artificial spices. And you'd opt for more simple vegetables like sweet potato (camote) tops, moringa, amplaya leaves, eggplant, okra, and other similar veggies that are so cheap.

You have no night life and it takes simple things to amuse and entertain you. I and my wife often just sit on our porch enjoying the cool afternoon air and talk softly or watch folks walk by on the street. Or, we spend time alone at 7-11 or McDonald's with just a large order of pineapple juice or something more filling. It won't cost us more than P150.

Our happiness threshold is so easy to hit. We're very easy to please. Just a leisurely walk around the village park or block is like "travel" to us. What more if we are in an actual long-distance trip?

We may not have traveled around the world or to Europe or to Mars but we are content simply to see these places on the Net, on Facebook (as our friends take picture of themselves in those places) or elsewhere.

What's important to meek, simple and the poor in spirit is that theirs is the Kingdom of God. And that means you get to roam around God's Kingdom and see scenic sights few people see any time of day each time we talk to God or browse the bible. And it costs us nothing.

4. They Don't Have to Prove Anything

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This is among the powerful blessings of being simple. You don't need to prove anything to anyone. You don't have to join the world's rat race. You're simple so it's okay for you to be labeled "average" or even "below average." How people see you doesn't matter to you.

Most people love being in a contest, especially proving who's better or who's the greatest. So they abandon any idea about simplicity, simple living, being meek or poor in spirit. In fact, they often mock these things and see them as weak. To them, you have to always go out there and prove your worth. Make noise. Assert yourself. Argue. Debate. Flex muscles, Throw your weight around. Prove yourself smarter and a winner.

They belittle the quiet, simple, low-profile, unassertive and self-effacing.

So they mostly end up sick, ailing and in pain when age get the better of them. They're often moody or rotten in character.

When I saw all these in life, I decided, what's the use of excelling? What's the use of popularity and trophies? What's the use of proving your worth?

Nothing.

As King Solomon found out, everything man pursues in this world is vanity. Useless.

So, the only smart and wise way to live is simple. No wonder Jesus came to earth as a simple man with a simple family. All the Pharisees and law teachers and Sadducees tried to excel in their careers but Jesus retreated to the mountainsides and hills and lakes.

Jesus knew the truth about himself. He didn't have to prove his worth. Though God, he didn't consider equality with God something to be grasped (or something to be insisted on) but made himself nothing, says the bible.

Such are the simple and meek and free.

3. They're Free!

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Folks living simple lives are free. They're not bound, enslaved or trapped by schedules or deadlines. They decide the times of their lives and live their days in full because they almost never "run out of time."

You know how to determine if something in your life is a clutter or a non-essential? If it takes away your freedom, it's garbage. And garbage needs to be taken out of the house.

"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom," says the bible. So freedom means you enjoy the presence of the Lord. That's a powerful blessing on the simple and meek---the poor in spirit.

I always watched my mom live her remaining years as a widow. She kept things so simple that she enjoyed freedom others even her age never did. She was always relaxed and calm. She died at 88. My dad also decided the same peaceful, simple life later in his life.

Even when they were younger, I often saw them relaxed and living a simple life that's why they often had free time to spend with us. I got my cool and relaxed attitude from both of them. Nothing is that important in life to allow it to take your freedom away.  And definitely, God won't take it away because it is his will to set you free. Therefore, I believe that anything that eats up your freedom is not God's will.

A lot of rich people spend a lot money just trying to be free. They spend vacation in remote places, in lonely islands or hidden valleys or exclusive resorts, or go on a expensive cruise just to enjoy freedom.

But of you're a simple guy living a simple life, you can just stay at home and be free. In fact, you can be anywhere and still enjoy freedom. Such a powerful blessing few people on earth enjoy.

Is this simple, free life really possible?

Well, Jesus put it this way---look at the birds and the lilies. The birds never store in barns and the lilies never labor nor spin. yet they are well provided for. They are free of what worries the world. If that isn't possible, Jesus would not have talked about it.

2. Always Available

Because they live simple lives, they're always available especially for important moments---like when their kids perform during a school program, during their graduation or during their birthdays.

In fact, their kids always enjoy their presence at home. Keeping your family intact and happy like that is a BIG blessing---and these days when everyone's too busy, not many enjoy this. In fact, lack of time---not being available at a time when people you love need you most---is often why so many family and marriages have been wrecked. And this is due to how their lifestyles have become so complicated.

The remedy is to go back to the basics and living simply. The simple have more free time and are always available. If in case they're not, they can easily adjust their schedule and make time.

I used to work for a company and thought it was the most blessed time of my life. Then something happened in the company and employees suddenly found themselves jobless. I thought that was tragic. But then I found a livelihood online and started working from home. That made my life a lot simpler and I'm always home---always available for my wife and kids. It's when I understood more what blessed really meant.

Sometimes, the tragedy is that, people become available only when they get too old. They have more time spent for analyzing their past lives and realizing how they wasted time on the non essentials and had not time for the truly important ones. It's a waste of time to not have lived a simple life.

In the end, most aged people see that a simple life is the meaningful and blessed life, and they missed it. Don't wait for that to happen. Live a simple life now and start being available to your loved ones.

It's easy to keep life simple---just get rid if clutter and non-essentials. To help you know what is clutter and non-essential in your life, number 3 blessing is vital.

1. Theirs is the Kingdom

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First and foremost, the simple (poor in spirit) are favored by God to inherit the Kingdom of heaven, says Jesus Christ. They may not seem to have much in this life, but they do have lots in the hereafter. And this blessing is pronounced no less than Christ himself, so that makes it a sure thing.

Just imagine---Christ's first teaching recorded in the bible is how the meek and simple are favored by God to own the Kingdom of heaven. Making that his first teaching makes it the most important and powerful thing. It's indeed a blessing to the simple.

If you understand that you are given the Kingdom, you'd have no problem living simply on earth. In fact, you'd stay simple and content with whatever you have, not struggling to be at par with folks who have an abundance in this life. You're just happy for them, never in competition.

That's being genuinely blessed.

Don't forget the condition of the promise---you'd be given the Kingdom if you remain poor in spirit or simple and meek. You may try a bit to do better in life, but you remain happy with what you have. Anyway, back in your mind is always the thought that God had given you his word---yours is the Kingdom. Nothing could be better.

Others who have a lot materially will boast of what they have and are. They will do that because people who don't get the truth are often predictable. They'd insist they're blessed.

But you know better. So you just keep quiet and listen to them. You're just content because you know that fact that the poor in spirit owns the Kingdom. And of course, they'd always wonder why you're not impressed or envious. Or, sometimes they take your nonchalance as envy. They brag about what they have because they want you to worship them.

But there's peace in knowing.

If you believe Christ and remain meek and simple, your reward is a surefire thing. It has been declared as a Kingdom "law" and no one and nothing can veto that.