Psalms 18:30

God’s way is perfect.
All the LORD’s promises prove true.
He is a shield for all who look to him for protection.

We have different ways, though they all lead to various outcomes, but we should always know that there is always a way that is supreme. That is God’s way. It is always true.

Hello everyone, welcome once again to our site. This is a season we are walking through the Sermon on the Mountain also called the Beatitudes. These are attitudes that are befitting for believers to have that our Lord Jesus Christ taught his disciples and the crowd that formed around him.

In his longest recorded sermon, Jesus starts by describing the traits he is looking for in his followers. He says that God blesses those who live out those traits. Each beatitude is an almost direct contradiction of society’s typical way of life. We find the best example of each trait in Jesus himself. If our goal is to become like him, applying Beatitudes will challenge the way we live each day.

Jesus began his sermon with words that seemed to contradict each other. We should understand that God’s ways contradict the world.

We will be looking at beatitudes each day.

Matthew 5:2
The Beatitudes
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

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

The Lord starts by addressing the issue of poverty. This was a common place for the people of his day. And many thought that by being poor they would gain favour from the Lord because it was taught in the books of the Laws that God cared so much about the poor people. (Psalm 41:1 Blessed is the one who considers the poor! In the day of trouble, the Lord delivers him; Psalm 72:12 For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper. Proverbs 14:21 Whoever despises his neighbour is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor) All these verses were familiar to the people of the old and the poor took consolation knowing that they held a special place in God’s heart. This cannot be further from the truth. God cares so much about the poor but he wanted more from the poor not just being satisfied in their poverty but doing something about it as well.

Jesus removes this false and skewed belief by pointing them to the poverty of the spirit. This is what attracts God more and He accompanies His care with blessings. Though he cares about those who are just poor, he cares more about those who are poor in the spirit and He adds to His care a blessing and assures them of a place in His kingdom.

A case scenario is of a poor man who dwells so much in doing evil, in as much as the Lord cares for the poor, He would never bless an evil poor man. Neither will He bless a proud poor man. That poor person that the Lord assures of His blessing is the person that is poor spiritually.

Who are those who are poor in spirit?

• These are those that realise that they are unable to proceed on their own. They accept that they need a Helper and ask for it. They do not lean on their own understanding (Prov. 3 Verses 5 to 6) but trust in the Lord with all of their hearts. Accepting that one is in need is a sign of humility. Asking for help after acceptance is what the Lord seeks. He says those who seek find, those who ask get and those who knock will be opened to. (Matthew 7:7). The Lord further says that the proud He detests but loves the humble (Proverbs 16:5).
• A person with a poor spirit is one that is humble enough to accept that he needs the help of others who are greater than him and in this case in need of the Lord to help him.

When we are poor in spirit we attract the Lord’s blessings and God’s kingdom becomes ours.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Matthew 5:3