Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God. – Matt 5:3
What’s good about poverty? In the physical aspect of life, poverty is not great, but spiritually, Jesus desired that his followers be poor in spirit. But why? Perhaps, poverty works out humility in man, perhaps it is in the state of poverty and lack, that one can truly reflect on the verities of life. Perhaps in the embers of dearth lies the desire for growth.
On the other hand, the splendors of riches and wealth far too often make people proud. And God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. There is such a strong reason why the Lord spoke of how hard or impossible it is for the rich to inherit the kingdom of heaven.
Not that God does not want his children to be prosperous, far from it. He is the one that gives us power to make wealth. The apostle John desired above all things that God’s children should prosper and be in good health. A similar principle is evident when it comes to knowledge. We can only come to faith through the knowledge of God via faith of course. But the apostle Paul remarked that Knowledge puffs up, it very easily does, nevertheless, God wants us to acquire knowledge, most importantly the knowledge of God which produces faith, righteousness, joy, peace, and the like. To acquire knowledge or wealth, one must first recognize the need to do so and then pursue it.
So, let’s look again at that spiritual poverty in the same light. Poverty of the spirit produces humility; it helps one to recognize one’s need for the saviour. It brings about a strong yearning to be filled. If we believe that we are filled with the spirit and the word of God already, it may become difficult to yearn for more, not that it is impossible.
Jesus was very clear when he spoke about poverty of the spirit, showing it to be a desirable trait. We must all aim for it; we must do everything to recognise our spiritual poverty that should in turn produce a yearning to be filled by God. It should produce the humility that makes one surrender to the all-powerful and mighty hand of God. It is in this position of absolute surrender that ordinary men become one with God in spirit. It is what helps in the renewal of the mind; what helps us understand that we cannot achieve any remarkable thing by ourselves. It is what God truly desires, that is, all of Him and none of self.
Being poor in spirit produces a yearning that God longs to meet. God longs for us to yearn for him, to desire for him in a way that we totally forget about who we are but embrace who he wants us to be, one with God in spirit, body, and soul. For that to happen, we can only always pray that God himself will daily inspire us to yearn for him and to humble ourselves before him, to attain this lofty spiritual height.
Made Perfect In Weakness 