Are you “poor in spirit”?

Of all the beatitudes, the first is not only the most foundational, it is also the most surprising and countercultural—then and today.

So, here’s my question, which is the question I’ve been asking all along: Are you “poor in spirit”?

Do you know how much you need Jesus?

Or are you separating Sunday from Monday, the spiritual from the secular, religion from the “real world”?

Are you confining the Lord of the universe to part of your life? Or are you seeking his will and word for every dimension of your life?

We can get there in one of two ways: through our problems or through our potential.

We can let our challenges drive us to God, getting so far down we have nowhere to look but up.

Or we can envision what our lives could be like if we were truly dependent on our King, if his omniscience led us and his omnipotence empowered us.

Think of the difference we could make in our culture if the God of the universe were in complete control of us. Think of the souls that would be saved, the lives that would be changed, the ways God would be glorified if we were “poor in spirit.”

In The Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis wrote, “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

Are you?

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