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

These comforting words of Christ are addressed not to the proud, not to the boastful and self-conceited, but to those who realize their own weakness and sinfulness. Those who mourn, the meek who feel themselves unworthy of the favor of God, and those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are all included in “the poor in spirit.” …

The poor in spirit feel their poverty, their want of the grace of Christ. They realize that they know little of God and His great love, and that they need light in order that they may know and keep the way of the Lord. They dare not face temptation in their own strength, for they realize that they have not moral force to resist evil. They have no pleasure in reviewing their past life and little confidence in looking to the future, for they are sick at heart. But it is to such that Christ says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Christ saw that those who feel their poverty may be made rich….

What great privileges are within the reach of those who feel the poverty of their soul and submit to the will of God! The remedy for soul poverty is found alone in Christ. When the heart is sanctified by grace, when Christians have the mind of Christ, they have the love of Christ, which is spiritual riches more precious than the gold of Ophir. But before there can be an intense desire for the wealth contained in Christ, which is available to all who feel their poverty, there must be a sense of need. When the heart is full of self-sufficiency and preoccupied with the superficial things of earth, the Lord Jesus rebukes and chastens in order that men and women may awake to a realization of their true condition….

You may come to Jesus in faith and without delay. His provision is rich and free, His love is abundant, and He will give you grace to wear His yoke and to lift His burden with cheerfulness. You may claim your right to His blessing by virtue of His promise. You may enter into His kingdom, which is His grace, His love, His righteousness, His peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. If you feel in deepest need, you may be supplied with all His fullness, for Christ says, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Jesus calls you to come. “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for their’s is the kingdom of heaven.”—The Signs of the Times, August 1, 1895.

From From the Heart

But you say, “In what way have we robbed You?” In tithes and offerings. Malachi 3:8.

Would you do it? The Bible speaks of this as if it were an impossibility that anyone should venture to do such a thing. “Yet ye have robbed me.” …

The Lord saw just how it would be when the world was filled with inhabitants, and therefore He makes a covenant with His people that they should give Him their tithes and offerings, according to the arrangement which He has made. This is His. It does not belong to any of you. God has made this arrangement with you, that you may show that you realize your dependence and accountability to God by returning to Him His portion. If you do this, His blessing will come upon you. All that we have is the Lord’s, entrusted to us as His stewards. That which we hand back to Him He must first give to us….

We breathe because God takes charge of the human machinery. Day by day He keeps it in working order, and He wants us to think of the infinite sacrifice He has made for us in suffering with One equal with Himself—His only begotten Son. He consented to let Him come to a world all seared and marred with the curse of sin, to stand at the head of humanity as a sin-bearing, sin-pardoning Savior….

Christ declared that all power in heaven and earth has been given to Him…. He takes His position at the head of humanity, covering humanity with divinity….

God forbid that any one of us should fail of gaining the precious boon of eternal life. Do not rob God. Walk honestly before Him. All is His. He has entrusted goods to His agents for the advancement of His work in the world. They are to bring to His treasury a faithful tithe, and besides this they are to bring gifts and offerings as the cause shall demand…. God desires us to realize that heaven has been brought near to earth. Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of angels minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation….

God is in earnest with us. He expects us to help in planting His standard in places which have never heard the truth…. From all over the world, calls for help are coming. Lay out no money unnecessarily. Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow the Master. You can never give Him as much as He has given you. He gave His life for you. What have you given for Him?—The General Conference Bulletin, April 8, 1901. (Taken from Ellen White’s talk, April 6, 1901.)

From From the Heart

Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. Matthew 8:20.

Christ came to this world to live a life of perfect obedience to the laws of God’s kingdom. He came to uplift and ennoble human beings, to work out an enduring righteousness for them. He came as a medium through which truth was to be imparted. In Him are found all the excellencies necessary to absolute perfection of character….

Christ gave up His high command in the heavenly courts, and laying aside His royal robe and kingly crown, He clothed His divinity with humanity. For our sakes He became poor in earthly riches and advantages, that human beings might be rich in the eternal weight of glory. He took His place at the head of the human family and consented to endure in our behalf the trials and temptations that sin has brought. He might have come in power and great glory, escorted by a multitude of heavenly angels. But no, He came in humility, of lowly parentage. He was brought up in an obscure and despised village. He lived a life of poverty and suffered often with privation and hunger. This He did to show that earthly riches and high rank do not increase the value of souls in the sight of God. He has given us no encouragement to think that riches make anyone worthy of eternal life. Those church members who, when a brother becomes poor, treat him as if he were unworthy of their notice certainly did not learn this from Christ….

It is submission to sin that brings the great unhappiness of the soul. It is not poverty but disobedience that lessens our hope of gaining eternal life, which the Savior came to bring us. True riches, true peace, true content, enduring happiness—these are found only in entire surrender to God, in perfect reconciliation to His will.

Christ came to our world to live a life of stainless purity, thus to show sinners that in His strength they, too, can obey God’s holy precepts, the laws of His kingdom. He came to magnify the law and make it honorable by His perfect conformity to its principles. He united humanity and divinity, that fallen human beings might become partakers of the divine nature and thus escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.

It was from the Father that Christ constantly drew the power that enabled Him to keep His life free from spot or stain of sin.—The Review and Herald, July 4, 1912.

From From the Heart

For He shall grow up … as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. Isaiah 53:2.

The people of Jesus’ day could not see, beneath the disguise of humility, the glory of the Son of God. He was “despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” He was to them as a root out of dry ground, with no form nor comeliness that they should desire Him….

Christ reached the people where they were. He presented the plain truth to their minds in the most forcible and simple language. The humble poor, the most unlearned, could comprehend through faith in Him the most exalted truths of God. No one needed to consult the learned doctors as to His meaning. He did not perplex the ignorant with mysterious inferences nor use unaccustomed and learned words of which they had no knowledge. The greatest Teacher the world has ever known was the most definite, simple, and practical in His instruction.

While priests and rabbis were assuring themselves of their competency to teach the people and to cope even with the Son of God in expounding doctrine, He charged them with ignorance of the Scriptures or the power of God. It is not learning of the world’s great persons that opens the mysteries of the plan of redemption. The priests and rabbis had studied the prophecies, but they failed to discover the precious proofs of the Messiah’s advent, of the manner of His coming, of His mission and character. Those who claimed to be worthy of confidence because of their wisdom did not perceive that Christ was the Prince of life.

The rabbis looked with suspicion and contempt upon everything that did not bear the appearance of worldly wisdom, national exaltation, and religious exclusiveness; but the mission of Jesus was to oppose these very evils, to correct these erroneous views, and to work a reformation in faith and morals. He attracted attention to purity of life, to humility of spirit, and to devotion to God and His cause without hope of worldly honor or reward….

He rejoiced in spirit as He beheld the poor of this world eagerly accepting the precious message which He brought. He looked up to heaven and said, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.”—The Review and Herald, August 3, 1911.

From From the Heart

And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority. Luke 4:32.

The mission of Jesus was demonstrated by convincing miracles. His doctrine astonished the people. It was not the contradictory jargon of the scribes, full of mysticism, burdened with absurd forms and meaningless exactions, but it was a system of truth that met the wants of the heart. His teaching was plain, clear, and comprehensive. The practical truths He uttered had a convincing power and arrested the attention of the people. Multitudes lingered at His side, marveling at His wisdom. His manner corresponded with the great truths He proclaimed. There was no apology, no hesitancy, not the shadow of a doubt or uncertainty that it might be other than He declared. He spoke of the earthly and the heavenly, of the human and the divine, with positive authority, and the people “were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.”

He had declared Himself to be the Messiah, but the people would not receive Him, though they saw His wonderful works and marveled at His wisdom. He did not meet their expectation of the Messiah. They had been instructed to look for earthly pomp and glory at the advent of their Deliverer, and they dreamed that under the power of “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” the Jewish nation would be exalted to preeminence among the nations of the world. With these ideas they were not prepared to receive the humble Teacher of Galilee, although He came just as the prophets had foretold that He would come. He was not recognized as “the truth,” the “light of the world,” although He spoke as never anyone spoke, for His appearance was humble and unpretending. He came without attendants of earthly pageant and glory. There was, however, a majesty in His very presence that bespoke His divine character. His manners, though gentle and winning, possessed an authority that inspired respect and awe. He commanded, and disease left the sufferer. The dead heard His voice and lived, the sorrowing rejoiced, and the weary and heavy-laden found rest in His compassionate love….

The lame, the blind, the palsy-stricken, and leprous, and those afflicted with all manner of diseases came to Him, and He healed them all…. Heaven endorsed His claims with mighty manifestations.—The Review and Herald, July 6, 1911.

From From the Heart