Matthew 5:3 New Living Translation
The Beatitudes
3 “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him,[a]
for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
The biblical concept of being poor in spirit is foundational to every aspect of the Christian life.
Foundational to salvation is a heart-level acknowledgment of our need for a Savior.
Foundational to experiencing God’s love is acknowledging our great need of love.
Foundational to heavenly peace and joy is an acknowledgment that this world truly offers us neither.
If we authentically want all that God in his grace offers, we must actively and sincerely pursue a lifestyle of being poor in spirit.
This Thanksgiving and Christmas season, I fervently pray that we may honestly explore, to intentionally discover, with the end result we experience more of the depth of God’s love this season as we discover more the fullness of God’s heart, to more faithfully minister to those among us “poor in spirit, desperate for him.
Matthew 5:3 Amplified Bible
3 “Blessed [spiritually prosperous, happy, to be admired] are the poor in spirit [those devoid of spiritual arrogance, those who regard themselves as insignificant], for theirs is the kingdom of heaven [both now and forever].
Who is this God that He would bless those who are spiritually impoverished with the greatest gift of all: the kingdom of heaven?
Our God demonstrated his wealth of grace, help, and love to all who were in need through the words and actions of Jesus.
Jesus, who came to reveal the heart of the Father, was undoubtedly drawn to the homeless, the disabled, those untouchables = > weak, desperate, and estranged.
And in comparison to his radical affection for the impoverished, he was likewise incredibly critical against all those enveloped with mankind’s chief sin: pride.
Jesus’ ministry made clear what thousands of years of religion, sin, the rule of the law obscured: the necessity of someone, in fact many someone’s, being poor in spirit to have and to hold and to share that true relationship with God.
You see, even today we are not immune from buying into a false doctrine that says in no uncertain terms the sum of our works somehow justify us to God.
Even today we preach, believe that we must clean ourselves up, do better, work harder, hate less or love more to have a relationship with our heavenly Father.
Jesus came to us to obliterate works-based relationship and to reveal God’s heart of unconditional, grace-filled, unchanging, and system-shattering love.
Jesus powerfully illustrates this truth in Luke 18:9-14.
May His words, not mine, shed .01% more light on any part of our hearts that still believe we must do something to deserve the affections of a loving Father:
Luke 18:9-14 English Standard Version
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed[a] thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Your Father loves you because He is God, God is Love and God so loves you.
He longs to exalt you.
He longs to bless you.
He longs with everything He is to pour out the full extent of his loving-kindness over every single possible area of your life.
But for Him to reward us for a works-based mentality is to reinforce behavior that serves only self, will only serve to harm us because God despises the proud.
It’s only in acknowledging our total and utter dependency on God that we will be able to receive the depth of his love.
It’s only in serving Him because we are loved, rather than to be loved, that our works will yield heavenly fruit.
It’s only in our allowing ourselves to be “searched by God” becoming humbled, becoming poor in spirit that we will discover ourselves being already perfectly and completely loved, liked, and enjoyed – we will then experience the freedom and joy that comes from an uninhibited relationship with God’s limitless love.
This Thanksgiving and Christmas season, deliberately, intentionally take time in guided prayer to search out, discover the true condition of your inner heart.
Ask God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit to search out, to illuminate any part of your life that is works-based rather than grace-based.
For once, be brutal against yourself, be honest with yourself and with God that the fullness of your need would be fully met with the fullness of his love for you.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Guided Prayer:
1. Meditate on the importance of being poor in spirit. Allow Scripture to ignite in you a pursuit of consistently acknowledging your need.
“For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.’” Isaiah 57:15
“All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” Isaiah 66:2
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3
2. Ask God the Holy Spirit to help you think of any ways in which you are living a works-based life instead of a grace-based life. Where are you doing life in your own strength? Where are you working for the affection of God and others? Where are you striving for that richness which is already yours in Jesus Christ?
3. Take time to acknowledge your need before God. Be hardcore honest with the condition of your heart, honest with your sin, brokenness. Receive the love of God who gives it freely, not because you deserve it, but because he is good.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.” Isaiah 49:15-16
The Parable of the Pearl of Great Value
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who, on finding one pearl of greatest value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. Matthew 13:45-46 English Standard Version
“To be human is to be poor” (Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel).
All of us are broken.
All of us are in need.
The greatest symptom of our brokenness is not acknowledging it.
It’s only in our rarely checked pride that our need goes unmet.
It’s only in pride that our brokenness is without healing.
We serve a good, loving Father who has always loved us.
I have discovered in the time leading up to my heart surgery, where I could not move very far in or outside by hospital room because it was simply too tiring and too risky, looking at the clock ticking away the seconds to my surgery, and now in my efforts to recover from my open heart surgery, from my triple bypass on July 17, 2023, where my heart was literally stopped for eighty minutes, that my life has become even more precious, to be more treasured than ever before.
God has placed me in a spot in my life where I have to be still, and be patient to wait upon Him and Him alone – in the meantime – allow myself to be searched.
It is not like I can “charge headlong” into life right now even if I should want to.
Psalm 139:23-24 English Standard Version
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts![a]
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting![b]
When we finally arrive at the time to agree to stop trying to prove to ourselves, God, and others that we have our lives together, we actually begin to truly live.
Thanks be to God that there is overwhelming freedom, joy, and love in living with the ultimate reality that we are wholly accepted and loved just as we are.
May we finally discover the abundant life available to us as we live poor in spirit.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 