BEGGARLY BLESSEDNESS!

For thus says the One high and lifted up who dwells forever, whose name is Holy: “I dwell…with the crushed and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly…  Isaiah 57:15

As Jesus Christ began His most famous message, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), He stuns the multitudes with His opening statement: “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (5:3).   Blessed speaks of an inner joy that is untouched by the circumstances of our lives. The word poor here means “beggarly, totally dependent”.  Poor in spirit equals those who are humble, dependent on God’s grace alone to be saved; coming to Him spiritually bankrupt, destitute and not self-sufficient, self-satisfied, self-reliant or self-righteous.  They come to Jesus with nothing but their sin, seeking His forgiveness and redemption. 

What are some characteristics of these saved spiritual beggars?  They take Christ at HIS terms, not their own.  They spend much time in God’s Word and prayer.  They praise and thank God constantly.  They accept their circumstances while seeking to do God’s will, not their own.  They share Jesus with others as one beggar telling another where the Bread of Life is (John 6:35-37).  They will be lost in the wonder of Christ and His amazing grace, continually confessing and forsaking sin.  To the poor in spirit is the privilege of belonging to God’s heavenly kingdom.  While Jesus will establish a literal kingdom here on earth in the future (the millennium, Revelation 20:3-6), right now He is setting up a spiritual kingdom in the hearts of spiritual beggars who realize that trusting in Jesus is the only way to heaven and eternal life (John 3:16; 14:6).

Have you experienced beggarly blessedness or are you still saying “I can do it myself!”?  Remember that “God is opposed to the proud, BUT gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

Bob Kulp