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Spiritual Bankruptcy
Are you spiritually poor? What does that even mean? Today, guest pastor Marques Nelson shares a devotion on Matthew 5:3. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Matthew 5:3
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Today, the section of God’s Word I want to look at is from the Beatitudes that Jesus gave at the beginning of his sermon on the Mount. The one that we’re going to hear is from verse three. Jesus said
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3)
The Beatitudes are interesting to look at. Blessed are the poor? If you stop there our culture sure doesn’t think that being poor, that poverty, is a blessing, does it? But you go on and it says Blessed are the poor in spirit. Well really that doesn’t make a lot of sense either. Spiritually poor?
God wants us to be spiritually rich, doesn’t he? Full of his Spirit? So we have to dig into this, what does it mean to be spiritually poor?
There was a man who came to Jesus who thought that he was spiritually rich. He came to Jesus and said what must I do to be able to have eternal life? He thought he had done it all. Jesus gave him the Ten Commandments and superficially he thought he’d kept every single one of them. But then, Jesus pointed out that he was in love with something other than God. His wealth, himself, he wasn’t spiritually poor because he had other priorities.
So what do we need to do when we hear that? What is God’s Word lead us to do? Declare spiritual bankruptcy. And realize that on our own we are spiritual beggars. We have nothing to fill up our own spiritual wallet or our own spiritual bank account. And look to Christ, the one who fills us up with his riches the one who came down from the riches of the Kingdom of Heaven to be able to enter our world and be physically poor and humble and not have anything of his own. Walking around in this world like a homeless man, also that he could die on a cross. Also that he could give you the riches of heaven.
So hear this from Jesus.
Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3)
Declare spiritual bankruptcy and be filled up with Christ and His forgiveness. The kingdom of heaven. Have a good day.
