“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3 (ESV)
How Do We Become Poor in Spirit?
- It starts by recognizing our utter spiritual bankruptcy apart from God.
- It grows by being acutely aware of our lostness and hopelessness apart from divine grace.
- It is maintained when we keep short accounts with God and others.
- Recognize Our Spiritual Bankruptcy
But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away. They do not say in their hearts, ‘Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.’ Jeremiah 5:23-24 (ESV)
But they did not obey or incline their ear but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts and went backward and not forward. Jeremiah 7:24 (ESV)
5 Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:5,9 (ESV)
10 as it is written, “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands, no one seeks for God. 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Romans 3:10-11,18 (ESV)
- Understanding Divine Grace
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, …. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:1-9 (ESV)
- Short Accounts
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 51:1-2,7,10 (ESV)
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 (ESV)