Today we kick off a new series exploring the Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew 5-7. The opening line of the sermon is the key to the entire message of the kingdom.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
To be blessed is to be happy and fortunate. This is not the subjective feeling of a fading high. It is the objective state of enjoying the approval of God.
To be poor in spirit is to be beggarly poor. It is to be spiritually bankrupt and completely dependent on the mercy of another.
These aren’t things that go together in the natural mind: poverty and fortune.
But in the kingdom of God spiritual poverty is the key to the approval of God and the treasures of the kingdom.
So – to be poor in spirit is to be truly fortunate! To feel inherently broken, insufficient and sinful is to be ready for entrance into the kingdom.
The way up is down.
This is the only way.
As we work our way through Jesus’ sermon, may we embrace our spiritual poverty.
“Dear Lord, I long for your smile upon my life. So please open my heart to the meaning of the Beatitudes. I open myself to their light. Shine their rays into the deepest part of my life. Sear my soul. Heal me. Build the character of the kingdom in me so that you can call me blessed. Amen.” -R. Kent Hughes