Blessed Are The Poor In Spirit             10-1-06

Read the Gospel according to Matthew 5:1-11

Key verse Matthew 5:3:  Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

According to the Asbury Bible Commentary, the poor in spirit are those who recognize their moral and spiritual poverty before the Holly God and hence cast themselves entirely upon His mercy and grace. Such persons are blessed because they experience the rule of God in their own lives now, and are assured of participating in the future Kingdom God will establish.

Oswald Chambers wrote about the ministry of the unnoticed: Our Lord called the twelve disciples; but what about all those other disciples of His who were not especially called? The twelve were for a special purpose; but there were hundreds who followed Jesus and were sincere believers in Him, who were unnoticed. We  are apt to have a disproportionate view of a Christian because we look only at the exceptions. The exceptions stand out as exceptions. Not one in millions has an experience such as the apostle Paul had. The majority of us are unnoticed and unnoticeable people. If we take the extraordinary experiences as a model for the Christian life, we erect a wrong standard without knowing it.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit” literally means, “Blessed are the paupers in spirit.” A pauper is exceedingly commonplace! At the basis of our Lord’s kingdom is the unaffected loveliness of the commonplace.

In their Devotional “Experiencing God Day by Day” the Blackabys wrote: The Bible presents many paradoxes that challenge our human way of thinking. We think of the poor as possessing very little, yet Jesus said the riches of heaven belong to the poor in spirit. Self reliance robs us of God’ good gifts.

Jesus insisted that in order to follow Him, we must deny self. As long as we rely on our own resources, we will never place our trust in him. As we acknowledge the poverty of our souls, we will realize how desperately we need a Savior. Jesus declared: “Repent! For the kingdom is near” Matt.4:17. God has so much to give the one who recognizes his need and will call upon Jesus. We should not allow our resources, wisdom, talent, or abilities to prevent us from trusting the Person who can bring us abundant life.

Prayer: Thank you Father for this beautiful day, that we can come to Sunday School and Worship. Help us to recognize our moral and spiritual poverty, so that we can deny ourselves and put our trust in Jesus our Savior. Amen.       

Luther McCollum