30 Days On The Mount

no earthly resources whatever, puts his whole trust in God. ’ xiv Every person is ‘poor spiritually’ but only the ‘poor in spirit’ have acknowledged this in their lives. The natural tendency of the human soul, whether one is rich or poor, is to be proud in spirit. ‘ He only who is reduced to nothing in himself, and relies on the mercy of God, is poor in spirit. ’ xiv We empty our imperfect selves to be filled with the love and sufficiency of Jesus Christ. David became great because he realized his own poverty of condition; This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.’ (Ps 34:6 NKJV) Both the rich and the poor have equal access to become poor in spirit. ‘There wa s a certain rich man who…lived each day in luxury. At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores.’ At his death, the rich man went to Hades, a place of woe and torment, not because he was rich but because he did not believe the spiritual light of ‘Mos es and the proph ets’ that was available to him (17:29) . His riches had deceived him into thinking he was ‘rich and had need of nothing’ yet he didn’t realize he was ‘wretched… poor, blind an d naked.’ (Rev 3:17) Poor Lazarus died and was carried by angels to ‘Abraham’s bosom,’ the place of the righteous dead. His entrance into paradise was not because of his physical poverty, but in his great need he also realized his ‘ spiritual poverty ’ and placed his absolute trust in God. The process of becoming poor in spirit begins with the Holy Spirit revealing to us the true condition of our soul and need for God. We must be grateful and worship the risen Christ who has provided everything for us through his sacrificial act of salvation on the cross. True Christians will perpetually be ‘poor in spirit yet rich towards God.’

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