God's Stamp of Approval: The poor in Spirit

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."--Matthew 5:3.  Here we find the first of the nine Beatitudes.  These nine attitudes are what begin the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest sermon ever preached.  To lay some ground work, our key words in this verse are 'blessed' and 'poor in spirit.'  Blessed means approved of God so the poor in spirit have God's stamp of approval. 

The poor in spirit.  With today's economic crisis, a term we hear a lot is credit.  Some people have good credit and others have poor credit.  Those with good credit get approved for things like credit cards and loans but those with poor credit are the one's that get declined. So how does this all relate to Matthew 5:3?

The poor in spirit.  Well unlike the credit bureaus, when we have poor credit, God approves us.  Now of course I am not talking about financial credit but spiritual credit.  In Jesus' day there were those that thought they were so high on the spiritual totem pole that they thought salvation was in the bag.  This group was known as the Pharisees.  However, as we read through the New Testament we find that this group is the very group Jesus rebukes because their arrogance has gotten in the way of their obedience to God's commands.  Contrary to what they believed, the Pharisees did not have God's stamp of approval. 

The poor in spirit.  On the flipside as we read in the New Testament, the one's Jesus praised were the ones that came to Him with nothing to offer.  They needed Jesus and they knew it.  The Pharisees of course needed Jesus too but they were too arrogant and prideful to recognize it.  But it was those who knew they needed Jesus are the ones we want to emulate.  They are the ones that have God's stamp of approval.  These are the poor in spirit. 

The poor in spirit.  Now I have intentionally left this term undefined until now.  According to one definition that I found, what this term literally means is lacking in spiritual worth.  It is quite literally the spiritually worthless (and the ones that recognize they are spiritually worthless) that God approves of.  This is a sober reminder for me personally because it reminds me that in reality I have absolutely nothing to offer God when compared with everything God has done for me through Jesus Christ.  This is an attitude we need to have within ourselves, to recognize that without God and what Christ did, we are spiritually worthless.  

The poor in spirit.  Returning to my credit illustration, I don't know, need, or want to know what your financial credit is like.  But how is your spiritual credit situation?  It almost seems backwards that we need to be of the mindset that we have no spiritual credit to have God's stamp of approval.  Taking on this attitude involves humbling ourselves before God and realizing it He and He only that gives and takes away.  Also, if you are reading this and you are thinking you are okay but have not obeyed the gospel, I encourage you to honestly reflect on that and do not delay in your decision to come to God.  On a final note, a footnote in my Bible says "poor in spirit" can also be translated 'those who are not spiritually arrogant.' We can't afford to be like the Pharisees who let their arrogance and pride get in the way of obeying God. So....

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! PRAY ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!