Jesus gave us eight attitudes of the heart in which we find blessing commonly referred to as the ³Beatitudes.² It is interesting to note that He started with poverty! Jesus said, ³Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.²
This fundamental attitude of all Christianity may just be the hardest one to grasp. In order to have Godıs best for our lives, we must realize our perennial inadequacy in and of ourselves. In being poor in spirit, we learn to rely solely on the limitless grace of God. Without our hope in God, we have absolutely nothing to offer.
No wonder Jesus chooses to begin His list of ³blessing attitudes² with the one that reminds us how dependent we really are. Men are not very good at leaning on others, and that is not what God is asking of us. Leaning on Him would mean that we could do some of it on our own. No, we are called to cling to him to count on Him to hold us up. Itıs the difference between a man in a restaurant who politely contemplates what he would like for dinner, and a starving beggar on a roadside asking for anything that might sustain his life.
Of course, this would only be bad news if it didnıt have a happy ending. God said that if we find this poverty, He would be more than enough to satisfy our every need. Perhaps He said that ³theirs is the kingdom of heaven² because of how obvious our dependence will be once we arrive there. What a beautiful picture when we admit our poverty, our spirits have an opportunity for untold wealth!