Deuteronomy 9:6: “Therefore understand that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.”

February 24th, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

As Israel prepared to enter the Promised Land, there was a looming spiritual danger ahead. Once inside the land, living a blessed life, they would face the danger of feeling morally better than the other nations. They would begin to think that they deserved every good thing they had received from God because of their own righteousness. So God warned them in advance, through Moses, of the temptation toward spiritual pride. The antidote was to be constantly reminded that they were being sustained by God’s grace alone. Left to themselves, they were in fact, “a stiff-necked people.” How important it is for us as believers to remember our own lack of any personal righteousness and that the blessings we receive from God are based on Him—not us.

Pride was the underlying sin in the Garden and in Satan’s fall from heaven. It seems the closer we are to God, the easier it is to fall into the sin of spiritual pride. Perhaps this is why Jesus began the greatest sermon ever delivered, the Sermon on the Mount, with the words “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). Being poor in spirit does not mean being poor-spirited or not having a backbone. It means having a correct estimation of one’s self. We are spiritually bankrupt people. Each of us is born into this world spiritually dead, as we see in Ephesians 2:1: “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” Being “poor in spirit” means recognizing that fact, understanding that we are lost, destitute, and needy apart from God.

Jesus says that recognizing this characteristic of being poor in spirit will make us happy. Most people in our society today would argue the opposite. Conventional wisdom would say, “Happy are the successful, the powerful, the rich, the famous, the aggressive, the self-reliant, the self-confident, and the glamorous.” But God says that it is only when we realize that we are poor in spirit, needy, and spiritually dead that we can be saved. Isaiah 66:2 says, “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word.” When we come to Him empty handed, we can have fellowship with Him, and that is where true happiness lies.

“LORD, we worship before You, remember than there is nothing good in us, and that it is by Your grace and shed blood alone that we can have fellowship with You.”