Graciously Adorned: BE-Attitude: Poor in Spirit

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

BE-Attitude: Poor in Spirit

"Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:3

Sometimes this part of scripture is misquoted as "blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." NO...just because you are in poverty does not give you a streamline into the gates of heaven! ha. Poverty is NOT a blessing although some may choose it...it is NOT what this scripture is about. What Jesus was talking about was a spiritual condition.

Being self-reliant, self-confident, self-centered and swimming in our own self-esteem and in what WE can do teeters on a form of humanism. Humanism says that man doesn't need a savior and shouldn't rely on someone else for salvation...everything a person needs is within himself.

Poor in spirit is having a humility that is the realization that ALL your blessings come from the grace of God. We are actually nothing without our creator and because of Him we should constantly give thanks and be grateful! The opposite of humility is pride.To be poor in spirit we have to understand that what we know and what we have is ONLY because of our God and we are reliant, confident, centered and have a great esteem that is TOTALLY reliant on HIM and not our own selves as our source.

Jesus is saying here that blessed are they that put my teachings into practice. Blessed are they who acknowledge they can't fulfill God's call by themselves. Blessed are they who realize that they are spiritually bankrupt without me. Blessed are they that turn their face to God to fulfill what they were created to be. Blessed are they who place their faith and dependence on me. We cannot achieve true happiness and bliss on our own merits!

In reality everyone who is in the Kingdom of God had to be poor in spirit at one time in order admit that they needed Jesus and with a broken and contrite spirit asked Him into their heart! The problem here is STAYING humble before God and acknowledging HIM with every day, every breath and remembering that every thing that we have comes from HIM. By no merit of our own do we come close to the gates of heaven and no works that we do with our own hands can bring us anywhere close to eternity if it doesn't involve Christ.