The Beatitudes Pt. 1: Blessed are the Poor in Spirit…

There’s been something on my heart lately; The Beatitudes. You know, The Sermon On The Mount, Matthew 5:3-12; it’s one of the most famous teachings (I’m convinced) of all time. I heard in a teaching once, that Jesus defines your greatness as walking out the Sermon on the Mount. So, my question to you is this: are you living greatly? What is your definition of greatness?

What are the Beatitudes, really? This is but one way I’ve heard them described: ‘These eight virtues will usher us into becoming a more mature bride. They are the expression of both the first and second commandment, giving a clear definition of love, spiritual maturity, godliness, and a lifestyle that mirrors that of God’s Kingdom. These virtues must be deeply rooted in our hearts in order for our actions, attitude and response to reflect them.’

These eight virtues are coupled with promises, and can be broken down into two categories: the first four are the ‘inner dispositions’ that deal with cultivation of the inner heart of the believer towards the Father. The last four deal with the internal ‘dispositions’ that are externally expressed. To sum up the Beatitudes, they express the inner and outer workings of the first and second commandment, to love. Let’s get down to business.

Matthew 5:3 reads:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,”

What does this even mean? This is not an uncommon question. To be poor is described as having little or nothing, deficient or lacking in something, meagerly supplied or endowed with resources, etc. So, you can see that there’s not really much you would have to give if you were poor by worldly standards. But to be ‘poor in spirit,’ what does that consist of?

To be ‘poor in spirit’ means to come to the realization that we have nothing to offer God in return for His free gift, called Jesus Christ. This revelation of spiritual poverty gives us the ability to see the Cross as being our ONLY hope, and that no matter how hard we try, how hard we work, how much we think we give, there’s nothing we can pay God back with to earn what He freely gave us. We will always fall short of our potential if we live in the mentality of ‘paying Him back.’

To be ‘poor in spirit’ is also the pure and lovely revelation that He loves us because of who He Is and what Jesus did on the Cross for us! Not because of what we’ve done or who we are; there is nothing that we could ever do, think, or say that could ever live up to that standard! That might be an odd way to say it, but think about what Jesus did. He died for you and I while we ‘were still but sinners’ (and you can’t tell me you would die for someone who HATED you. If you did…YOU would have been Jesus. I’m just saying).

To add to my last thought, think about 2 Corinthians 12:9

“And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ “

You must learn to LEAN on the Lord; so many times we give up on the troubles life throws at us because we try so hard to lean on our own strength and understanding. To realize that we are weak, empty vessels without Jesus, gives room for Jesus to come and fill us. It testifies the fact that we are nothing without God. We try to search for comfort and security and love in everything but God only to find that we’re unsatisfied, time and time again.

This brings us to the issue of PRIDE.

Pride, as defined by Dictionary.com reads, “A high or inordinate opinion of one’s own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority…” When we are prideful, we are not living in alignment with God’s heart or the standards He has set for us. If we’re living in pride, we’re calling God a liar and not following his guidelines {we must remember that we are to compare ourselves to the life of Jesus, not to others}.

Our own pride is the cause of our discouragement and failures; our poverty opens the doors to greater intimacy with God, the Father.

Being poor in spirit is being humble and meek enough to know that you have nothing to give but what God has given you to give back to Him.

{Some extra verses for you to check out}

~Luke 18:9-14
~Revelation 3:17
~1 Peter 5:5
~Psalms 53:3
~Isaiah 64:6