Matthew 5:3
Chip Brogden
Chip Brogden
Matthew 5:3
"Blessed are the poor in spirit,for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."
This spiritual poverty is the result of recognizing that apart from Him we can do nothing. It is a willingness to be broken and reduced to spiritual bankruptcy, which implies not only losing everything we once enjoyed, but also making a fresh start with a clean slate and all our debts erased. It is the Second Universal Spiritual Principle, which states: "I must decrease" (John 3:30). This decreasing, or as I like to say, this reducing to Christ, is the first requirement.
If we are unwilling to be emptied then we cannot have the riches of the Kingdom of Heaven. We will be like the Laodicean church, who said they were "rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing" yet in God's sight they were poor, blind, naked, and miserable (Revelation 3:17). So the Kingdom belongs to those who readily admit right from the beginning that "a man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven " (John 3:27).
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"Blessed are the poor in spirit,for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."
This spiritual poverty is the result of recognizing that apart from Him we can do nothing. It is a willingness to be broken and reduced to spiritual bankruptcy, which implies not only losing everything we once enjoyed, but also making a fresh start with a clean slate and all our debts erased. It is the Second Universal Spiritual Principle, which states: "I must decrease" (John 3:30). This decreasing, or as I like to say, this reducing to Christ, is the first requirement.
If we are unwilling to be emptied then we cannot have the riches of the Kingdom of Heaven. We will be like the Laodicean church, who said they were "rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing" yet in God's sight they were poor, blind, naked, and miserable (Revelation 3:17). So the Kingdom belongs to those who readily admit right from the beginning that "a man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven " (John 3:27).
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Lord, give us that hunger to know You;
deliver us from the pride that makes us want to use You.
Let me pray today with John,
'He must increase, but I must decrease.'
Amen and Amen.
deliver us from the pride that makes us want to use You.
Let me pray today with John,
'He must increase, but I must decrease.'
Amen and Amen.
