“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. . .” (Matthew 5:3)
Heavenly Father, Your Word assures us that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit. Please help us to understand this and live it. This is my prayer in the only name that brings us salvation – the name of Jesus the Christ. Amen.
This is the first of the well known beatitudes. Sometimes we hear it recited as: Happy are the poor in spirit . . . That is because the root word in Greek: makarioi the singular form being makarios, can be translated as happy, fortunate. Translated from the Hebrew ashre: happy, blessed.
For us to truly appreciate what Jesus was conveying in this beatitude we need to recognize what kind of poverty He was referring to. He was not talking about the lack of material riches. He was talking about those who realize that they are spiritually poor; that they have nothing with which to recommend themselves to God. These are the ones who feel themselves completely undeserving of any good thing; and therefore feel their absolute need of a Savior.
“Then Jacob said,’ “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you’: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two companies” (Genesis 32:9, 10). These were the words of Jacob as he prayed to God before going to meet his brother Esau.
When he saw himself as the deceiver he had been all these years he suddenly realized that the blessings he had received from God were all undeserved. His feeling of unworthiness was the beginning of his life-changing experience when he wrestled with the Son of God that night. Not only his name was changed, his very nature was changed. He would never be the same again!
Paul also felt his dire unworthiness when he said the following words: For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. (1 Corinthians 15:9). On another occasion he exclaimed: ” ‘ “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief” ‘ ” (1 Timothy 1:15). He did not see himself as merely a sinner, but as the worst of sinners!
Of those who see themselves spiritually poor and in need of a Savior, Christ declares, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). The kingdom that He had come to establish on earth – the kingdom of grace – is theirs!