Poor in spirit

And he opened his mouth

and taught them,

saying:

“Blessed

are the poor in spirit,

for theirs

is the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 5:2-3



Charles Finney, on what it means to be “poor in spirit”:

To have a realizing sense of our spiritual state. In this it is implied that we understand our own guilt and helplessness, and realize as a practical fact our own utter emptiness by nature of every thing good, and of any tendency to that which is good. It is one thing to hold this in theory, and another thing to be heartily sensible of the humbling fact. Most professing Christians admit in words that they are in themselves wholly helpless and destitute, but to know and feel as an abiding practical conviction that this is their true spiritual condition how few are able!

– December 4, 1844, BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT, Sermon by Prof. Finney.

My spirit often feels rich, and in that I am deceived.

Blessed are the poor in spirit . . .

Jesus turned this world on its head, did he not? How could a natural man desire poverty? Yet we are called to that desire.

And, in truth, we aren’t called to become poor in spirit, I don’t believe. Because we already are poor in spirit. When we fell in the garden we fell into spiritual bankruptcy, debt, and destitution. We are called to recognize the fact of our crushing, desperate poverty. I live as if I’ve got money in the bank, when my spirit is, outside of Christ, absolutely pennyless.

But to be transparently, humbly, joyfully poor in spirit! My Lord, who I’ve never had reason to doubt, assures me that this leads to blessings, and, indeed, to the Kingdom of Heaven!

For the King has come, in mortal flesh, with his majesty and benefices veiled. He has come to the rescue, and he bids us come, we who are poor, to fellowship with him and to join in his labors and trials, and to cast aside all thought of our own sufficiency. He calls us to the joy of poverty recognized and – love him! – poverty cured forever, entering wide eyed and blinking into the light of a Kingdom we can’t fathom, and could never imagine.

The King has come. May we who are poor in spirit recognize our poverty and flock to him!

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