“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3
Jesus teaches that the poor in spirit are blessed. If you want the blessing of God, you must start here. To be poor in spirit is the gateway blessing that leads to all the others, for without this, none of the others can be reached.
Notice Jesus speaks about heaven in the present tense. “For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” You might expect Him to say, “theirs will be the kingdom of heaven.” This is especially striking because all the other Beatitudes speak about future blessings: those who mourn shall be comforted, the meek shall inherit the earth, etc.
Jesus presents a taste of heaven now. Life in this world is a long way from heaven, so what can this mean? We don’t have streets of gold or peace between nations, so what taste of heaven do the poor in spirit have today?
God tells us, “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit” (Isa. 57:15). In other words, God lives with the person who is poor in spirit. To live with God is heaven, so the poor in spirit get a taste of heaven when God comes to dwell with them.
If you want a felt awareness of God’s presence in your life, begin here. God makes His home with the person who is poor in spirit. Heaven is in the humble before the humble are in heaven.
There is blessing for the person who has failed—your sin has found you out. The enemy told you there would be no harm in it, but now he is telling you there is no hope because of it. Nevertheless, if your failure should lead you to become poor in spirit, then Christ will come dwell with you. God can use the sin that would have brought you down to hell to bring you to the path that leads to heaven.
Does it surprise you that God dwells with the poor in spirit? Why?
