The Beattitudes are among the most famous texts in the Bible. Extensive study of the Word will reveal that the Be Attitudes are the steps given by Christ for a spiritual ladder of success.
Blessed are the poor in spirit... the first rung of the ladder is salvation
Just what does it mean to be poor in spirit? Using Vines Expository Dictionary, it says that the word poor is used as a metaphoricle adjective. Vines then refers you to the word beg. PTOCHOS describes one who crouches and cowers, a beggar, to cower down and hide oneself from fear, poverty-stricken condition.
The first step toward righteousness is to be a child of God or to belong to the Kingdom of Heaven. Only by putting one's own will aside, acknowledging this poverty condition to our Lord, can Jesus enter the heart of any man to enrich it with eternal life or His Kingdom. The entire substance of this verse is so much about any person realizing that because of who God is ( holy and perfectly without sin) there is no way to enter the His Kingdom on your own power or effort. Even if a person could be sinless, they still can't enter the Kingdom of God through any works or thoughts of their own. It is only Christ's holiness that can get anyone through the door of salvation. The penitent who realizes this becomes humble and insignificant before a Holy God.
King David's knew he was nothing before a Holy God Psalm 8:1-9
- Oh Lord, our Lord, the majesty of your name fills the earth! Your glory is higher than the heavens.
- You have taught children and nursing infants to give you praise. They silence your enemies who were seeking revenge.
- When I look into the night sky and see the works of your fingers- the moon and stars that you have set in place-
- What are mortals than you should think of us, mere humans that you should care for us?
- For you made us only a little lower than God, and you crowned us with glory and honor.
- You put us in charge of everything you made, giving us authority over all things-
- the sheep and the cattle and all the wild animals,
- the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents
- Oh Lord, our Lord, the majesty of your name fills the earth!
As one looks into the Word and spends time there with the Lord, they find that it is precisely the realization of their own emptiness that enables them to submit their heart to a magnificent and powerful God. God is then able to take over and change their hearts for the holiness He seeks in them and happiness and peace they seek.
2 Corinthians 12:9
But he (Jesus) said to me (Paul), "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
Human strength
Many people are such that they feel that they are doing alright on their own. They seem to have it all together. In this world they probably are doing just fine. They solve all their own problems and they solve the problems of others too. They strive not to be a burden on others (even when they really need help) and are sure not to ask too many miracles of their God or expose their cracking moments to anyone. They pray and attend church but they suffer from a lack of true knowledge of who their God really is and just how much He really loves them. These strong ones that run around doing so much good and being so good to others are still doomed to hell if all that they are and all that they have done was done without an intimate relationship with the One True God; Jesus Christ. The power and change must come directly from Him.
All of this speaks of the kind of closeness that causes one to peer into the Word and contemplate what you see there. It is amazing what you will find but requires time to just sit awhile to read and listen, talk and pray. It is the only way that anyone can be transformed (Romans 12:2) into the better person they want to be because when it is done this way, it comes out of a realtionship with the magnificent Elohim and it's His power that does the changing for you. As Jesus said, "When you are weak then my power is made strong".
Blessed (Happy) are
Those who, cower, beg or bow down to the Lord for His love and mercy..who can acknowledge their poverty-stricken condition and their powerlessness to enrich their lives with the Kingdom of God on their own..for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven!
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