Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
This is a portrait of the one God favors, the person who is blessed by God. The Beatitudes build off each other. It begins with coming poor in spirit. The poor in spirit know they are spiritually bankrupt and are dependent upon God for everything. They come with no spiritual resume in hand, not thinking that they are accepted by God because they attend church or give to the poor or try to be good people. They know that they are completely dependent upon God for every single breath that they breathe. Any holiness, any desire for goodness, and love displayed towards others, originated with God and is an undeserved gift from Him. It’s best exemplified by the parable Jesus told in Luke 18:10-14 -
Luke 18:10-14 - Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men-- robbers, evildoers, adulterers-- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Or as Paul put it in Galatians 6:3, “If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”
“There is the mountain that you have to scale, the heights you have to climb; and the first thing you must realize, as you look at that mountain which you are told you must ascend, is that you cannot do it, that you are utterly incapable in and of yourself, and that any attempt to do it in your own strength is proof positive that you have not understood it.”
Martin Lloyd-Jones, The Sermon on the Mount
“Just as water ever seeks and fills the lowest place, so the moment God finds you abased and empty, His glory and power flow in.”
Andrew Murray
