Paying Attention To Weakness
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:3
Over the past semester, I have been studying the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 very slowly. The first day, I got as far as verse three before something stood out to me that made me stop and think. “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” What does that even mean?
The poor in spirit is obviously not speaking to physical poverty; it is about your spirit. Being poor spirited is a state of mind, and it is about the weakness of a man’s spirit. It is about humility. You and I have a tendency to think higher or lower of ourselves than we should. Whereas the poor in spirit see themselves for who they truly are: weaknesses and strengths.
Don’t believe your own praise.
You are going to tell yourself a lot of things- like “I am strong enough to do this” or “I do deserve that” or “I did that all in my own strength.” In truth, we have no strength on our own. Humans are weak spirited. We have weaknesses.
When we fool ourselves into thinking we are better and stronger than we ought to be- that is when we are most vulnerable.
Don’t believe your own criticism.
Humility does not mean that you are constantly speaking down to yourself either. It is not an attitude of failure, but of honesty. Thoughts of ”I am not worth anything” or “I can not do anything” are just another form of pride. We are actually asking for validation from an external source when we fake this humility, and that is not at all what being poor in spirit is.
Speak truth to yourself.
So what is being poor in spirit? What does this humility look like? It is about being honest with yourself. Being aware of and paying attention to your own spiritual state. We all have weaknesses, and your weaknesses are different from mine.
If we don’t know our weaknesses, we are more likely to make the same mistakes we have already made.
Pay attention to your weaknesses. Jesus starts here in His sermon, I think, because it is so foundational to our lives.
My challenge from this post would be to pay attention to yourself for a week. Take inventory of areas where you fall short consistently, and then think about how you can prepare yourself to overcome that weakness with God’s help.
For instance, when I started paying attention to my weaknesses the first one that stood out to me was that I become lazy when I have a day off from work. I tend to oversleep, not accomplish much, and spend little time in God’s Word because I think that I need or deserve the rest. After seeing this weakness, I started to make a plan every time I knew I had a day off. I would set an alarm, plan specific passages to read, make a prayer list, go for a walk, etc.
The point is, by becoming aware of my state and seeing my weakness, I was able to go to God, pray for change, and then become proactive in making that change happen.
Post written by Chris Holland.
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