Dependence on God
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. When Jesus Christ gave his sermon on the mount it was not to tear down the Ten Commandments but instead to give depth to the new law, one to be written into our hearts and not just on stone. The Beatitudes are more like attitudes. These are ideas to help the way we think, speak, and act. They can sometimes be confusing. Take for instance, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” That seems like a bad idea, who wants to be poor in spirit? We want to be rich in spirit. However, what it means is to be completely dependent upon God. That doesn’t mean we have to give away all of our material possessions. Instead we need to reflect on where are material possessions rank in our lives. Are we addicted to our things, do our things distract us from other relationships? Does being on our phone constantly take away from the relationship you have with the person sitting next to you in the same room? How is your relationship with God? Do you depend on God? I believe part of the problem within our society is that we think since we can make money, have possessions and seem to control our lives, that we don’t really need God. We don’t realize how much we truly need God. Many of us won’t have this epiphany until we have a serious illness, death in the family, or something huge happen. It is then that we will realize we need to depend on God not completely on ourselves and our “stuff”.
Blessed are the poor in spirit because they understand that this “stuff” is only of this world. It is here to sustain life, and help others but not to satisfy our need for relationships and God. Happy are those who depend on God and understand that “stuff” is simply “stuff” and that God is the most important element of our lives.
