What Does Poor in Spirit Mean? | S3E22 Unscripted Conversations

What does poor in spirit mean when life has knocked you completely flat on your back and you have nothing left? That is the question that kept popping into my head when I was outlining this episode. Not the Sunday school answer but the real one. The answer that really matters on the days when you are running on empty and just trying to show up.
I think most of us have heard the Beatitudes so many times they have kind of lost their edge. We know the list. We can recite it or at least a good portion of it. But there is a big difference between knowing the words and actually living them out — and I think that gap is a lot wider than most of us want to admit.

And that is what this of Unscripted Conversations is all about. Where we start closing that gap. One beatitude at a time.

Listen to What Does Poor in Spirit Mean — S3E22

Y’all go pull this one up RIGHT NOW because I am not even kidding — I got all fired up recording it and I have a feeling it just might get you a bit excited when you listen.

What Does Poor in Spirit Mean — And Why Does It Matter

The word poor that Jesus used does not mean a little tight on money or going through a rough patch — it means destitute. Completely empty. Nothing to bring, nothing to offer, nothing left to stand on. The poor in spirit are the ones who come to God and say I have got absolutely nothing left. I have tried everything I know to try, I have run completely out of my own strength and ideas, and I need You. Not as a backup plan or a last resort. I just need You.

And Jesus looks right at that person — the one with nothing — and says the kingdom of heaven is yours. Right now. Not someday when you get back on your feet. Right now in the empty place.

A full cup can’t be filled but an empty one can.

Read Matthew 5:3-6 and if you missed last week’s episode go catch up on Episode 21 because it sets the whole scene for everything we are talking about in this series.

Poor in Spirit as well as Mourning, Meekness, and Hunger

In this episode we slow all the way down and go beatitude by beatitude — and y’all each one is nothing like what the world tells us.

• Poor in spirit — coming to God with empty hands as your first response, not your last resort. When we are so capable and so strong, when do we actually need God?
• Mourning — we have gotten really good at skipping the grief. But the comfort is attached to the mourning. You cannot receive the embrace if you will not enter the grief.
• Meekness — nothing to do with being a pushover. Picture a powerful trained horse — all that strength surrendered to a direction bigger than itself. That is meekness. Strength under control.
• Hungering and thirsting for righteousness — there is a big difference between being actually hungry for God and just maintaining your faith. This one got really personal for me and I think it will for you too.

Not one of those people is someone the world would hold up and say — now THAT is somebody worth celebrating. And Jesus looked at every single one of them and said — those are my blessed ones.

What Does Poor in Spirit Mean For You Right Now

After you listen I want you to actually stop and ask yourself these questions. Not skim over them. Not let them go in one ear and out the other. Get a piece of paper, open your journal, whatever works for you — and really think about each one.

Are you holding something so tight your hands are not actually open to God? Is there something you have been pushing past that you actually need to grieve? Are you exhausted from fighting for something God never asked you to fight for? And be honest — have you drifted into just going through the motions when God is calling you back to actually being hungry for Him?

Because the person Jesus called blessed is not the one who had it all together. It is the one who finally stopped pretending they did. Go listen.

Pin It for Later

Save this to your Faith or Bible Study board and send it to somebody who needs to hear that empty hands are exactly what Jesus was talking about. The kingdom shows up in the places we least expect it.

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Unscripted Conversations is exactly what it sounds like — no script, no filter, just honest conversation about faith and real life. We do not do churchy and polished around here. New episodes drop every Wednesday at 4pm EST over at SimplyBlessedDesignz.com.
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