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Thursday, December 19, 2024

How Does Being Poor in Spirit Make You Rich in God’s Kingdom?

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the dominion of heaven is theirs.” – Matthew 5:3

This is the primary of the nine macarisms, or blessings. In the strangest twist of events, Jesus is declaring that the insiders of His kingdom usually are not the Jews who’ve been above average of their Torah observance. They aren’t necessarily the Bible study filler-outters, the choir directors, the mission trippers. Neither are they the rich elite who don’t actually need God because they’ve discovered easy methods to make life work on their very own terms.

No, Jesus says the poor in spirit are the insiders, those that are conscious about their inability to measure up, who know their need for God across the board. Interestingly, Luke’s Gospel simply says “the poor” are blessed, making a little bit of dispute around what Jesus means here. But I don’t think we’ve to make a choice from physical poverty and spiritual poverty. Both conditions can put us in prime position to experience the wealth of Christ’s kingdom because each conditions typically lead us to the top of ourselves.

I cannot claim to have ever lived in poverty, but my first several years in Nashville were—how shall I put this?—lean. I used to be a struggling musician on every front. There was not less than one month when my landlord let me live rent free, and this was not for lack of my working at several tasks outside of attempting to develop into famous. I used to be a fence-staining, lawn-mowing, garage-cleaning employee for whoever would have me. My college friends were all back in Virginia crushing it in politics or banking, getting married, and constructing brick homes. I used to be on a sinking vessel otherwise often called the music industry and, by middle-class standards, “poor.” I used to be not only financially so but equally struggling on the continuum of well-being.

During these years specifically, I discovered the reverse nature of the Beatitudes. As one clever thinker says about them, “Jesus here takes us through the sound barrier, where things begin to work backwards.”6 In other words, those in probably the most unblessed conditions are those Jesus describes as thriving due to His promise that the dominion of heaven belongs to them. Ironically, the poor in spirit (those who’ve little of what the world values) possess the belongings the wealthy in spirit (those who seemingly have the whole lot) can’t acquire.

During this several-year stretch once I experienced this irony, I met Christ in a way I had never before known Him. If you’ve lived on this fallen earth long enough, you realize what I mean. It’s those times after we lose our job, can’t pay our bills, fail at a dream, or face abandonment by a loved-one—and we don’t know what to do. Being poor in spirit may also mean reaching the highest of our game and discovering we’re hauntingly unfulfilled. No matter how we arrive there, it often takes becoming “poor” on this planet’s kingdom to grasp what it means to inherit the true wealth of the dominion of heaven.

In precedent days the materially poor had only God as their refuge. The term poor had taken on spiritual significance.7 Like when David said of himself, “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him from all his troubles” (Ps. 34:6). Or more significantly, when Jesus interpreted the prophet Isaiah’s hope for the poor as being about Himself, “He has anointed me to evangelise excellent news to the poor” (Luke 4:18; Isa. 61:1).

For the traditional listener, this primary beatitude didn’t come out of the blue. To be poor and know God’s favor was actually in line with Old Testament values and prophecies. The radical part was that the poor in spirit were suddenly the flourishing ones because Jesus was bestowing His kingdom to them. This will need to have felt like the opposite side of the sound barrier for Jesus’s followers. It should feel like that for us, too.

In the strangest turn of events, it’s the undeserving in need of grace for whom the King is holding open the door to His kingdom. The humble are surpassing the self-righteous and self-reliant on their way inside.

So, dear one, take heart in your struggle and hold your head high within the places where you are inclined to feel low. To be poor in spirit is to know the riches of God. It’s to know the dominion of heaven that’s yours in Christ.

Excerpt taken from The Blessed Life by Kelly Minter, B & H Publishing Group, Nashville TN. Copyright © 2023 Kelly Minter. Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.

Photo Credit: © Getty Images/Suwaree Tangbovornpichet

Kelly is an writer, speaker, and musician living in Nashville, Tennessee, where she moved to pursue her music profession and published a Bible Study called ‘No Other Gods’ for Lifeway. She has written several other books and Bible studies since and sits on the board of Justice & Mercy International. Kelly enjoys teaching and studying the Bible, cooking, gardening, and college football and cherishes her six nieces and nephews. Her joy is knowing and sharing Jesus and helping others experience His love. Keep up with Kelly through Instagram, Facebook, and email.

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