APRIL 4, Matthew 5:3

The world tells us that people are happy if they are rich, successful and powerful. Everyday, we see pictures and articles telling us that latest fashion, the sleekest cars, and biggest bank accounts are cool. These people with all of these things look very happy. So why does the beatitude tell us instead that we have to be poor to be blessed?

Actually, that’s not what the first Beatitude says. It says “Blessed are the poor in spirit”. Jesus Christ was not commending poverty but Jesus Christ came to give us another idea of blessedness and blessed people. To be “poor in spirit” is to recognize and admit that we are sinners who have nothing to offer to God and that we deserve nothing but the judgment of God and so need to seek salvation from God. To be “poor in spirit” means we know we are spiritually bankrupt, that we have no resources in ourselves and we must seek the assistance of God. So to be “poor in spirit”, we have to look at the Lord Jesus Christ for help, begging for his mercy as we know on our own we can do nothing. And if we truly do that, we therefore have to get rid of all of our self-pride, self-assurance and self-reliance and ask God to forgive us of our sins and for all the wrong things that we do and have done and ask God to save us from going to hell and fill us with the Holy Spirit.

The hymn writer James M Gray puts it this way:

Naught have I gotten but what I received;
Grace hath bestowed it since I have believed;
Boasting excluded, pride I abase; I’m only a sinner saved by grace!

Only a sinner, saved by grace! (2x)
This is my story, to God be the glory
– I’m only a sinner, saved by grace!

Thought:  “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)

Prayer: Most merciful and gracious heavenly Father, please forgive me of all of my sins. Help me to realize I’m spiritually bankrupt, for I am nothing in Your presence and unable to do any good on my own and that I need Jesus as the Lord of my life. This is my humble cry, and I ask in Jesus’ name, amen.