Blessed...

For the next several days, I'd like to focus on each of the Beatitudes found right at the beginning of Matthew 5.  That word beatitude is pretty archaic, but put simply it means blessed.

The first beatitude that Jesus shares is this: 

"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Being poor in spirit implies something apart from monetary wealth or poverty.  The person poor in spirit may be homeless or a millionaire.  To be poor requires a complete reliance.  Some poor put their reliance in the government, in charities, the sweat of their brow, or the kindness of people blessed with monetary gifts. 

The poor in spirit know that they have a complete and utter dependence upon God.  Everything comes from Him.  He is their creator and sustainer.  He will see them through.  This requires a laying down of dependence upon myself and a complete, childlike trust.  The poor in spirit have the courage to step out in faith when they don't see a landing point because they know that the Lord will provide.

I have to bring in a movie.  The great illustration of walking by faith is in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  You know the part I'm talking about.  Indy steps up to the edge of a cliff and must get to the other side.  Their is an endless chasm between him and his goal.  He consults his fathers diary, which will help him overcome the challenge and reads "Only in a leap from the lion's head will he prove his worth."  "It's a leap of faith," he mutters, but knowing that the life of his father is on the line, he prepares himself and steps out into thin air and his foot stops on a bridge that had been there the whole time but blended into the rock of the canyon wall.

Learning to be poor in spirit is learning to trust.  It is learning to depend wholly on the Holy One.  As Jesus says, come as a little child--the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.