How a Poverty Mindset Will Butcher Your Life But Benefit Your Spirit

I once heard Pastor Robert Morris share a story about riding with a pastor friend in the car one day. As they drove by a spectacular mansion of a house his friend huffed and said, "Can you believe the size of that house? They ought to sell it and give to the poor." Pastor Morris paused for a minute and responded with something along the lines of, "That sounds really biblical... but the person you just quoted was Judas."

THE WORD

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." -Matthew 5:3

Poverty and wealth are in many ways subjective labels. If you make less than $15k a year in the U.S. you are considered below the poverty line. However, if you're 12 years old, then you'd be considered a middle school mogul! If you make $15k a year in large swaths of the world including sub-saharan Africa, parts of central America, and many small countries in south Asia, you would be considered among the wealthy.

My point is that our economic status is largely based on the cultural context that surrounds us. A person with a big house may have a modest income compared to those who live beside them, and the person with a very small house may generate way more income than others realize.

For this reason there are many different approaches to addressing poverty, such as analyzing systemic practices, instituting government programs, creating relief foundations and charity organizations, as well as, and perhaps most importantly, educating and addressing the mentality that often accompanies it. We often refer to this as a "poverty mindset."

A poverty mindset limits an individual's ability to see themselves, and others for that matter, as deserving or worthy of having money. In many ways they see money as evil and therefore conclude that anyone who has it must be evil as well, thus the judgmental comment about the big house in the opening story.

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE BLESSED

This, of course, must be held in tension. The Bible warns us that the love of money is the root of all evil (1 Tim. 6:10) and Jesus tells us in Matthew 6 that no one can serve both God and money. He even goes as far as saying that we will love one of them and hate the other!

Unfortunately, many interpret that to mean that we should hate money, but let me remind you, Jesus also said that anyone who desires to follow Him must also hate their mother, father, siblings and even themselves (Luke 14:26). Not uncharacteristically, Jesus is being hyperbolic. But He's very serious when He commands us not to make money our master nor the love of our lives.

Today we tend to most associate success with ACQUIRING a lot, ACCOMPLISHING a lot, or being ADMIRED by a lot. Though the world may define success in this way, I have found it to be detrimental that much of the western Church has adopted this same definition. This has resulted in our tendency to associate worldly success and materialistic possession with God’s blessing and therefore God’s approval.

So when Jesus goes up on a mountain in Matthew 5 and begins spouting off what we know today as the Beatitudes, it had to have been shocking when He used the word "blessed" to describe nine different life circumstances that hardly anyone would deem as successful. The first of these nine is the poor in spirit.

Now there are a few layers to what it means to be poor in spirit, so I encourage you to view the sermon I gave recently on the meaning of that phrase if you desire to better understand it. But for the sake of this blog I simply want to address how being poor mentally and being poor spiritually relate to one another.

THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT

First, it's crucial to understand that practically everything in the natural and the spiritual are working in opposition to one another. Galatians 5 tells us there is a constant war happening between the flesh and the spirit so that each desires what the other does not. For this reason, often the physical and the spiritual work opposite of one another.

For example, in the physical we eat when we're hungry and we stop eating once we're full, but in the spirit, the more we eat (feed on the Word) the hungrier we become. The spirit is fed in order to hunger and the flesh hungers in order to be fed.

Being "poor in spirit" means that we recognize that we are spiritually bankrupt and utterly impoverished when it comes to our own spiritual well-being. In other words, to be spiritually poor means to be completely helpless in our ability to reach God.

THREE SIGNS OF A POVERTY MINDSET

So let's come back to what it means to possess a poverty mindset in regards to economic status and money. Here are three characteristics that often accompany a poverty mindset:

1. OVER-DEPENDENCY. People who suffer from a poverty mindset are often dead set on making others account for their own lacking. They don’t want to do it on their own or make contributions. Rather, they want to live dependent on others and have no one depend on them.

2. ENTITLEMENT. People with a poverty mindset tend to believe they deserve what they want even if they cannot afford it. It’s for this reason much of our society is buckling under the weight of so much debt today. I read a quote the other day that said “There are three types of people in the world: the haves, the have-nots, and the have not paid for what they haves.” Ouch!

3. DISSATISFACTION. People with a poverty mindset are typically never satisfied; they always want more. That’s why one can be financially secure and yet still mentally poor. A poverty mindset prevents a person from learning to be content in every circumstance (Phil. 4:11-13).

Thus, a poverty mindset can be destructive… unless it's applied to your spirit.

THE BENEFITS OF AN IMPOVERISHED SPIRIT

To be spiritually impoverished is to recognize that you have nothing to give God, nothing to bring to the table, and nothing to offer as payment for your sin or His forgiveness. When you realize how spiritually poor you are you become:

COMPLETELY DEPENDENT ON JESUS. You realize Jesus has to do it ALL! John 15 says that "apart from Him we can do nothing." He saves us, redeems us, and empowers us to walk in His ways.

ENTITLED TO HIS INHERITANCE. You realize you’re a child of God and children are heirs of their Fathers' blessings. Jesus said "Which of you, if your son asks for bread would give him a stone? If you then, though you are EVIL, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give GOOD GIFTS to those who ask Him?" (Matthew 7)

DISSATISFIED WITH YOUR CURRENT STATE. You realize you can never have enough of God and He can never have enough of you. Pride and pride alone is what motivates someone to stay away from the altar, keep the Bible on the shelf, and allow their prayer life to go dormant.

CONCLUSION

Being POOR IN SPIRIT means we have come to the conclusion that the older we get and the longer we live, the MORE in need of God we are each day. In fact you are just as in need of God TODAY as you were the day you first believed on Him to save you from your sin and give you new life. God help us to walk with an awareness of our own spiritual poverty.