The Poor In Spirit

Read: Psalm 51

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Psalm 51:17

IN WORD In Matthew 5, Jesus opens His mouth to begin His great sermon. The first eight proclamations are blessings. We call them the Beatitudes. Perhaps they sounded strange to their first hearers; blessings were imparted to unexpected subjects. But the blessings should not have sounded so strange. They are scriptural themes throughout the Word. The sacred mouth that spoke to them on the mount was the sacred mind that had inspired them centuries before.

Consider the first Beatitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). Consider also the emphasis on humility throughout God’s Word: “He crowns the humble with salvation” (Psalm 149:4), as well as the verse for today. Jesus told people that understanding their bankruptcy would prepare them for the riches of the Kingdom. Was that really a surprise? For a nation that had modeled itself after Pharisaical spirituality, it was. But the Bible had made it clear from the beginning: Self-sufficient pride is the wrong model.

IN DEED Self-sufficiency continues to be the wrong model. As it was in the Garden and will always be, pride kills. We were not made for independence. There is nothing self-sufficient about us other than the ability to get by for a few decades, and even then we depend on God’s resources. No, we were made for absolute dependence. We have a poverty of spirit that only God can enrich. There is a hole in the human heart that no self-effort can fill, though we try desperately.

That’s our way out—to quit trying to fill it and just be desperate. That’s where life with God begins. Do not let desperation drive you to frantic self-effort; let it drive you to utter dependence on God. There can be no pride in such a pose, only blessing. God always responds to those who seek Him.

Humility is nothing else but a true knowledge and awareness of oneself as one really is.

—THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING