“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)
What does it mean to be poor in spirit? Well. Here is our problem:
“…the natural man [the man without God] is not able to take in the things of the Spirit of God: for they seem foolish to him, and he is not able to have knowledge of them, because such knowledge comes only through the Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)
When the Lord saved me, I was working as a design engineer in the graphics arts industry. I started out my career in aerospace designing flight control systems and had a wonderful opportunity to design and patent a digital “Word Processing” system. At age 29, I knew a lot about electronics and system functions but nothing about Jesus! As an alcohol and drug abuser, I really needed Jesus so, one morning He met me in my “private” restroom and GLORIOUSLY SAVED ME! Reading the Bible and learning about this new and wonderful experience consumed me, my problem was, I was very “worldly” knowledgeable and didn’t understand yet, that the knowledge of God was “Spiritual”. Thus, I struggled to learn the meaning of what I was reading in the Bible. I was born again but not yet awakened to the fact that I must accept that I was “poor in spirit” because:
“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are 1contrite in spirit.” (Psalms 34:18) 1feeling or showing sorrow and remorse for a sin or shortcoming, crushed.
A new method of study and prayer came out of this for me, I then started and still do today, to confess to the Lord that I am poor in spirit and can only learn if He reveals the scripture to me.
“…these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God…What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but THE SPIRIT WHO IS FROM GOD, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.” (1 Corinthians 2:10, 12)
Open our hearts to you Lord…Bill Stockham