GOOD POVERTY

MATTHEW 5:3

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

Jesus was going to teach His disciples and when He opened His mouth to speak, the first words out of His mouth were the words contained in the verse above. Sitting with that verse of scripture, the word POOR always jumps at me each time I meditate on this scripture and I begin to wonder how one could be poor in the spirit; I thought Christianity was about attaining that spiritual height where we get to become like our father? So how come I have to be poor in spirit to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven?

Honestly, this has left me baffled for a long while now until I bumped into another verse of scriptures that threw more light on it for me; Is 66:2b “But on this one will I look; On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word”.  Hmmm

With this scripture, Matt 5:3 begins to take shape for me. We see the word poor show up again which tells me that there is definitely an association between Poverty, Spirituality and Heaven; which led me to study the word Poverty and everything that is associated with it.

In my studies, I found out that one characteristic of the poor is humility (circumstantial though lol). Poor people cower and hide in the presence of the rich and affluent people around them. They will readily accept hand-me-downs and handouts from the rich no matter how insulting it might look in the eyes of a by-stander. Genuinely poor people have past caring what other people think or feel, they just want to survive. It will amaze you the amount of insults a poor man is ready to take from the wealthy just to have access to one meal.

Now if you relate this to the scripture that says that God resists the proud, then it begins to make sense why God will say that the Kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit.

A poor man never has enough; he is always looking for more because he understands his situation. In essence, what Jesus was telling His disciples in Matt 5:3 was that the Kingdom of heaven is for those that are willing to thirst for and seek for ‘More’.

God says He will look at him who is poor and of a contrite spirit. One who is willing to learn, experience new things in God, listen to what He has to say and most importantly do them, also not forgetting to ask Him for things all the time because scriptures made us to understand that God is continually looking for people to reveal the things that are to come to.

Truth is, when we tremble at His every Word, it is difficult to fall out of line from His will and there is an open channel of communication.

Question is; How Humble am I? Do I get puffed up as a result of my little knowledge of spiritual things? If yes, then I need to re-trace my steps bearing in mind that the bible says that “He who thinks he stands should beware lest he falls”.

I need to be humble in all my deeds (dressing, spending, mannerisms, driving, giving), thoughts and words.

Lord help me look up to You for everything and please keep me in line with your will for me in Jesus name, Amen.

Poor in Spirit, that’s the only form of poverty that is allowed in my life sha lolz.