By David ReayWednesday 17 Apr 2019LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 2 minutes
Read Matthew 5:3
3 God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him,
for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. (NLT)
The first thing to say about this first of Jesus’ beatitudes is that it doesn’t mean you are going to be uproariously happy if you run out of money and have no food to eat or no roof over your head. There is no special delight in being materially poor.
And it is not what Jesus is talking about. He is referring to a sort of spiritual bankruptcy. We might paraphrase him by saying that God favours those who know their great need of him because they are most likely to take hold of the resources he offers. If we know how much we need grace and mercy, we are more likely to take hold of it when offered.
Jesus doesn’t urge us to try harder to be good in order to earn that favour. He wants us to recognise that no matter how good we are, we can’t be his friends unless our imperfections are dealt with by Jesus’ forgiveness. Our real yet relative goodness is not good enough.
We gain great spiritual wealth, the blessings of living under Jesus’ rule now and forever, by first admitting our spiritual poverty. Help comes to the helpless, rich resources come to the spiritually bankrupt.
Being poor in spirit doesn’t mean we are gloomy and miserable. It is not self-loathing. It is a realistic assessment of where we stand with a holy and perfect God. It is an awareness of a need, and an awareness that this need can be met. It is having empty hands in order that a gracious God may fill them.
Blessings
David Reay