The Poor in Spirit

Matthew 5:1-3 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. He said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

In my little Bible Study of the Beatitudes of Matthew chapter 5, Professor D. Blair Smith explains that this first proclamation that “Blessed are the poor in spirit” is the entrance to the entire list of Beatitudes. Poor doesn’t necessarily mean physically poverty. It is often a technical term for those who realize that, at bottom, they need God for everything physical and spiritual.

The 1828 Webster’s dictionary defines the word “poor” as: Wholly destitute; needy. It is often synonymous with indigent, and with necessitous, denoting extreme want. Not only must there be a self-awareness of the true “poor” personal spiritual condition, the negative consequences of that genuine deficiency, and that there is an actual critical need to remedy that which is lacking by means of the proper and precise remedy for the situation, but, also, the care and desire to take the appropriate actions to meet and fill this real need. I learned early that “you must know that you are “lost” before you can be “found” and “rescued”.    

Isaiah 61:1 “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.”

Rev. Smith clarifies that spiritually “empty” is what it means to be “poor in spirit”. Being poor in spirit is about God giving us a proper attitude toward ourselves as carrying a debt of sin and, consequently, as bankrupt before God. Because of our natural spiritual poverty, there must be a death of self if we are going to be filled with Christ. Knowing this about ourselves, we cry for mercy to the only One who can wipe out our debt and be our supply in our bankruptcy – we cry out to God.

Revelation 3:17 You say, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.”

The spirit of our age tells us to “express” ourselves and “believe” in ourselves. We are about self reliance, self-sufficiency, self-confidence and self-improvement. When we are full of self, we miss the blessing of God’s presence and are poor in spirit. Don't miss the kingdom of Heaven.

Blessings