Book Review Blurb: Poor in Spirit

The Tuesday feature of the Worldly Saints blog references something I have been reading lately. The post is meant to share some of my reflections from the latest book, magazine article or blog post I have or am reading.

One of my new friends here in Wichita, and a fellow elder at Wichita Bible Church, is Rick Wright. Rick is married to D’Annette and has three girls: Rebekah, Elisabeth and Hannah.

He wrote a book recently (his 2^nd one if I am not mistaken). It is a book on the 1^st Beatitude from the Sermon on the Mount entitled Poor in Spirit. It is a brief 20+ page book explaining the meaning of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:3 – “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” It is the beginning of what will become a much longer work as he continues to release these mini-books on each beatitude and then eventually compile them all together in a book on all of the Beatitudes.

What I appreciate about his explanation of what it means to be “poor in spirit” is his willingness to deal with the common, ordinary sense of such a phrase. In our “everyone is way too sensitive” culture, we desensitize ourselves to sin and elevate our own pride and self-worth. And Jesus’ intent on speaking about being “poor in spirit” was to remind us that when we come into the kingdom of God, we are to come humbled and acknowledging our lack of self worth (Luke 9:23).

Rick explains it this way:

“First of all, I am going to realize that I am morally unclean before God. Then I will realize that I am spiritually bankrupt before God. I will sense that I am unworthy before God and I will become aware of the fact that I am totally powerless to change any of this in myself.”

Rick captures the heart of true conversion: a realization that we cannot save ourselves (Eph 2:8-9) and are in need of a Redeemer whose sacrifice will please the Father who demands righteousness (Exod 34:7).

The entrance into the kingdom of heaven is not self-sufficiency but self-abasement. That is why “poor in spirit” is the 1st beatitude. It is where every other beatitude flows from. Rick does an excellent job capturing the meaning of this fundamental characteristic of every genuine believer.

I pray God uses it to draw people to himself and help people think less of themselves and more of God. I highly recommend this book and look forward to the other “beatitude books” to come.