What Does It Mean to be Poor in Spirit. I’ve been pondering that portion of scripture for some time now. (Matthew 5 – from The Beatitudes).   I’ve been asking myself if I am Poor In Spirit.  I don’t think I always am.  As a matter of fact, I doubt think many people are.  But I do think that many people, if they truly understood what Jesus meant by that statement would want to be poor in Spirit.  However, what I’m learning about that statement is that it is the opposite of what the world would have us be.  The world wants us to be self-sufficient, proud and godless.

Consider what John Piper said about this topic.  I think you’ll find it quite fascinating.  Perhaps life changing.

What Then is Poverty of Spirit?

It is a sense of powerlessness in ourselves.
It is a sense of spiritual bankruptcy and helplessness before God.
It is a sense of moral uncleanness before God.
It is a sense of personal unworthiness before God.
It is a sense that if there is to be any life or joy or usefulness, it will have to be all of God and all of grace.
The reason I say it is a SENSE of powerlessness and a SENSE of bankruptcy and a SENSE of uncleanness and a SENSE of unworthiness, is that, objectively speaking, everybody is poor in spirit. Everybody, whether they sense it or not, is powerless without God and bankrupt and helpless and unclean and unworthy before God. But not everybody is “blessed.”

Who Is Blessed?

When Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” he does not mean everybody. He means those who feel it. That is why it is so appropriate to take the first and second beatitudes together. “Blessed are those who mourn,” clarifies the subjective side of being poor in spirit.

Blessed are the poor in spirit who mourn. Blessed are the people who feel keenly their inadequacies and their guilt and their failures and their helplessness and their unworthiness and their emptiness—who don’t try to hide these things under a cloak of self-sufficiency, but who are honest about them and grieved and driven to the grace of God.

Blessed are you! because you are going to be comforted. Fear not, you worm, Jacob! Fear not, Moses, Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:6-8), Isaiah, Peter! For I will be with you, I will help you, I will strengthen you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand. Yours is the very kingdom of God. Amen.

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Reprinted by Permission: By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiring God.

I also like what this author has to say.