Poor in Spirit

Being poor in spirit before God means recognizing that one cannot reach God by one’s own ability; after all, salvation requires grace, and without grace there is no salvation. Grace means a gift, a giving from someone to a person of lower status, or a gift that supplies something the recipient desperately needs. Therefore, salvation must be properly understood as God’s effort to save humanity; it is a line that comes downward from above. By contrast, most religions can be depicted as a line from below upward—human effort to reach God—which cannot succeed.

Salvation is a gift that, without it, no one can reach God. The person who is poor in spirit is aware that by their own strength they cannot reach God. Being poor in spirit also means being conscious that our condition is not yet what God desires. We must always feel poor before God; we must always feel like the sick, because only the sick need a doctor or physician. Ironically, many people focus their lives solely on meeting physical needs and do not address inner issues —the soul’s matters—spiritual needs that only God can resolve. Woe to anyone who becomes self-satisfied or does not feel poor before God; such a person is like a healthy person who thinks they don’t need a physician.

In Matthew 18:1–5, the Lord says, “Unless you repent and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” This highlights God’s central requirement: to enter the kingdom, we must have hearts that are pliable and receptive, like a child’s. To be childlike means to willingly accept growth, seek counsel, and remain open to correction. In contrast, as people grow older, gain experience, or rise in status, their hearts often resist change—making it perilous for their spiritual growth.

God often speaks and rebukes us through various events. If God can use the mouth of a donkey, He can use anyone’s mouth. Yet sometimes our arrogance closes our hearts to hear God’s voice and correction. We must always honestly self-correct and recognize that we are not yet what God desires us to be. We must be serious from minute to minute, hour to hour, week to week, month to month, year to year, until we become what God desires. The tendency of many is to be content with what they have achieved. Especially when we compare ourselves with others, we stop growing.

Those who become as little children will long and have thirst. God’s formation process is not only through what we hear but also through what we experience. If people do not recognize their spiritual poverty, then when unpleasant experiences come, they want to get out of them quickly. How foolish it is when a church encounters such people and prays, hoping their problems will be easily solved. It is easy for God to lift us out of a problem, but if He allows the problem to occur, it is actually our hearts that are being worked on through that event. For through life’s events God shapes us, renews us, breaks our proud and selfish hearts, and no event happens by accident.