Question 6:

In what senses do we miss God's kingdom if we do not acknowledge our spiritual poverty?

We need to acknowledge who we truly are. Without an understanding that we are helpless without God we will believe we can 'do it ourselves', which is effectively what Adam and Eve did. It isn't that we will simply eat from the forbidden fruit, it is that we are not listening to God. We are not hearing His plan for us.

Question 5:

In your own life how have you been blessed by acknowledging your spiritual poverty

Question 4:

Identify some circumstances or insights which have helped you realise that you were "poor in spirit".

Question 3:

The Old Testament supplies the necessary background against which to interpret this beatitude. At first to be "poor" meant to be in literal, material need. But gradually, because the needy had no refuge but God, "poverty" came to have spiritual overtones. What do you think it means to be "poor in spirit"?

Being "poor in spirit" is to acknowledge that you have a need for help. Those of us who have bent their knee at the cross know that they have need for spiritual help and that help comes from God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Those on earth who believe that they can 'do it themselves' also believe that they are stronger psychologically and spiritually than those who need the crutch of religion. I know this because I was there. Indeed, in many ways I feel weaker and smaller since acknowledging that Jesus is my Lord and saviour than I did when I 'did it by myself'. The reason for this however, is that now I know where I am in the world. Before I was rich in spirit, and thought that I was the master of my own destiny, that I was my own boss. Now I realise that I'm poor in spirit and in need of God.