Matthew 5:3 (NKJV): “Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
The first Beatitude is those who are blessed that are “poor in spirit”. What does it mean to be “poor in spirit”? This is a term that is not commonly used. How do we define it?
Billy Graham says this (Information found on https://billygraham.org/answer/what-does-it-mean-to-be-poor-in-spirit-as-jesus-said-we-ought-to-be/):
“‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 5:3). What did He mean? Simply this: We must be humble in our spirits. If you put the word ‘humble’ in place of the word ‘poor,’ you will understand what He meant.”
So, to us that should mean that we seek to be “Humble”. We should seek to not be puffed up. We should seek to acknowledge that we do not know it all, as some may think.
Now, we may ask what does the word, “humble” mean? In this aspect, we can look at what part of the definition from Dictionary.com shows:
- not proud or arrogant; modest: to be humble although successful.
- having a feeling of insignificance, inferiority, subservience, etc.: In the presence of so many world-famous writers I felt very humble.
- low in rank, importance, status, quality, etc.; lowly:
Many times, we get spiritually puffed up. We may take on a new ministry or we may have some insight on something we come across when we are in a study or when we read The Bible, and instead of sharing what we learn with humility, we present what we learn with the kind of attitude of, “Look at how smart I am”. If we do this, a couple of things happen:
- God won’t use us to lead others because we tend to not give Him the Glory.
- Others won’t hear what we have to say because we act like we are better.
Today’s lesson should be that we humble ourselves truly and allow Our Lord to have the Glory. Then, we can truly inherit, The Kingdom of Heaven.
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Any scripture referenced here is taken from New King James Version (NKJV) unless otherwise noted