What I'm Learning About Becoming Poor in Spirit

I briefly mentioned before that I've been reading a book called Studies in the Sermon on the Mount by D. Martyn Lloyd Jones. It only took a few pages for me to realize what a great book it was and now, several chapters in, I just keep being more and more amazed. Of course, what has really been speaking to me isn't so much the book, but the fact that it's teaching on one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible, the sermon on the mount. There are so many amazing, and truly life-changing insights to be taken from that sermon, and D. Lloyd Jones does a great job at expounding some of them.

One of my favorite chapters of the book so far is one about being "poor in spirit," the first Beatitude in the Sermon on the Mount. Today, I want to share a little bit about what Jones explains about being poor in spirit, because it's so amazing to me:

"[Being poor in spirit] means a complete absence of pride, a complete absence of self-assurance and of self-reliance. It means a consciousness that we are nothing in the presence of God. It is nothing, then, that we can produce; it is nothing that we can do in ourselves. It is just this tremendous awareness of our utter nothingness as we come face to face with God. That is to be 'poor in spirit.'

Let me put it as strongly as I can, and I do so on the basis of the teaching of the Bible. It means this, that if we are truly Christian we shall not rely upon our natural birth. We shall not rely upon the fact that we belong to certain families; we shall not boast that we belong to certain nations or nationalities. We shall not build up our natural temperament. We shall not believe in and rely upon our natural position in life, or any powers that may have been given to us. We shall not rely upon money or any wealth we may have. The thing about which we shall boast will not be the education we have received, or the particular school or college to which we may have been. No, all that is what Paul came to regard as 'dung" and a hindrance to this greater thing because it tended to master and control him.

It is to feel that we are nothing, and that we have nothing, and that we look to God in utter submission to Him and in utter dependence upon Him and His grace and mercy...

How does one therefore become poor in spirit? The answer is that you do not look at yourself or begin by trying to do things to yourself. That was the whole error of monasticism. Those poor men in the desire to do this said, 'I must go out of society, I must scarify my flesh and suffer hardship, I must mutilate my body.' No, no, the more you do that the more conscious will you be of yourself and the less 'poor in spirit.' The way to become poor in spirit is to look at God."

As he explains, being poor in spirit is about being humble. It's about approaching God with the realization that we've got nothing to offer Him, and it's only by His grace that we can be saved.

That's such a beautiful realization to me. I've noticed in my own life that it's when I approach God this way, with a true realization of my own brokenness and imperfection, that I begin to see everything so clearly. It's then that I can truly understand His love - how deep, and how good it is. it's then that I am truly set free to offer grace and mercy to others, because I know how He has offered it to me.

I want to live in that kind of humility. I want to walk with that poor in spirit mentality. Don't get me wrong - that does not at all mean that we should walk with our heads hanging down, thinking we are unworthy of love. No - it's the opposite. We walk with our heads held high because we're fully aware that we did nothing to deserve God's grace, yet He gave it to us. So now we walk with the worth and righteousness and love of Jesus. And that is more empowering and freeing and amazing than anything we could have ever brought to the table.

#2016 #christian