I am amazed at how many Christians believe and churches preach that this means we are not to be wealthy as Christians.
The word of God does not ever say anything at all like that and it is cool to see those who truly take time to understand or allow the Lord to give revelation knowledge of His written word.
Thank You again Brother,
Blessings
Jim

There is our spirit and then again there is the Holy Spirit. What are we feeding the most, our spirit in its pursuit of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life [from I John 2:16], or the Holy Spirit of God? Which one would we suppose as God's sees it should be "poor"?

"He must increase, but I must decrease." John 3:30

I simply take it as being a little bit humble. Not proud or arrogant. While there is nothing wrong with having material things.
I find in many cases, the material things have us. They own us. We live for them. In a way they are our God, they consume all of our time,
they cause us to have pride, we work as many hours as possible in order to afford them. I think being poor in Spirit is much like being
content with what we have however little or much it may be. Material things (RV's, boats, motorcycles, snomobiles, water ski's, etc...)
have a way of causing people to miss church. They have a way of causing people to get puffed up with pride (look what I have!)

Chad said:

Q. What does it mean to be poor in spirit, as Jesus said we ought to be? I don't understand this, because it seems to me that we ought to strive to be rich in spirit, not poor. Or am I missing the point?

Click to expand...

This is a good question because the Bible is mostly about our spiritual condition, and the Bible words 'rich' and 'poor' are often misunderstood to mean physical situations. I see this as meaning that a person who is 'poor in spirit' realizes that he needs God and that without God he would be as nothing or lost. A person who has the attitude "I don't need God", and my own ability is all I need, would be the opposite of this. Further, it is important to realize that the word 'blessed' in the Bible is a little different from the standard English usage of the term. People often say that they are blessed because something good happened to them. For example, they might say, "I am blessed to have such a great teacher in History class", or "I am blessed to have been given this opportunity". This is a good way to look at life generally but not really exactly what the Bible means by the word "blessed". The Bible uses the word 'blessed' to indicate that a person is saved. Indeed, Romans 4:7-8 gives us a definition of a blessed person: "Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." Many other Bible verses give us a look at various character attributes of a saved (blessed) person, like the indication in the sermon on the mount (Mat 5:3) that a saved or blessed person is poor in spirit.

Chad said:

Q. What does it mean to be poor in spirit, as Jesus said we ought to be? I don't understand this, because it seems to me that we ought to strive to be rich in spirit, not poor. Or am I missing the point?



A. Your confusion is understandable; after all, the Bible does warn us against being empty and impoverished in our souls, and urges us to seek spiritual riches instead. Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).

But Jesus also said that there is another kind of spiritual poverty—one we should seek. He said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). What did He mean? Simply this: We must be humble in our spirits. If you put the word “humble” in place of the word “poor,” you will understand what He meant.

In other words, when we come to God, we must realize our own sin and our spiritual emptiness and poverty. We must not be self-satisfied or proud in our hearts, thinking we don’t really need God. If we are, God cannot bless us. The Bible says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

Pride can take all kinds of forms, but the worst is spiritual pride. Often the richer we are in things, the poorer we are in our hearts. Have you faced your own need of Christ? Do you realize that you are a sinner and need God’s forgiveness? Don’t let pride or anything else get in the way, but turn to Christ in humility and faith—and He will bless you and save you.

Billy Graham: What does it mean to be poor in spirit, as Jesus said we ought to be? | Answers | BGEA

Click to expand...

Humbling yourself to be poor in spirit, is to recognize your utter spiritual bankruptcy before God. It is understanding that you have absolutely nothing of worth to offer God. Being poor in spirit is admitting that, because of your sin, you are completely destitute spiritually and can do nothing to deliver yourself from your complete dire situation. Absolute spiritual dependency on God and realizing it is all of him and none of me!