The Lord Jesus began His Sermon on the Mount by saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
What is it to be poor in spirit? The opposite of poor is rich. Sinful man has this inherent nature to think of himself as rich. He considers himself as wise and important in his own surroundings and even if he is not, he gives the impression that he is. He is offended when he is slighted and protects fiercely his image and reputation when he is confronted or threatened.
"You say, 'I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing,' " the risen Christ said in Revelation 3:17. We make it our life's ambition to amass all that is impressionable in the world. When we have done so, we deem ourselves successful. When we fail we are discouraged and are seen as a failure.
But the Lord Jesus continues, "You do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked." Strong words to believers, mind you, not unbelievers. We need to allow God to constantly renew our mind and show us our real selves that we may come to Him in poverty and be filled with what He fills us with in His mercy. This, so that our "riches" do not come from ourselves but from what He fills us with. (Rev. 3:18) It is then that we increasingly have less and less expectations from others and are not offended if we 'feel' insulted or think that we are taken for granted. "He must increase, but I must decrease," our hearts would then echo the testimony of John the Baptist. (Jn. 3:30)
To be sure, as A.W. Tozer wrote in his book, The Pursuit of God, "the meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God's estimate of his own life. He knows he is weak and helpless as God has declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God of more importance than angels. In himself, nothing; in God, everything."
Blessed is such a man. The Bible calls him poor in spirit. To such a one belongs the kingdom of heaven.
