June 26

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. — Matt 5:5 BSB

Spiritual poverty is the deep feeling of emptiness in the soul before God, a sinking sense that there is nothing spiritually good in our hearts, nothing that can deliver us from the justly deserved wrath of God or save us from eternal punishment.

This feeling of guilt and condemnation is mixed with a spiritual awareness that there are blessings reserved for the elect—such as the Spirit of adoption, divine manifestations, and the cleansing blood of Jesus applied to the conscience by the Holy Spirit to wash away all guilt and filth.

By comparing our own lack with the blessings others receive, and by having an inward light that shows the truth of God's word and an inward life that makes it real, the soul wading in the depths of spiritual poverty realizes that only the manifestation of God's face, the testimony of God's voice speaking peace, can deliver it. It becomes clear that without these things, the soul lacks everything that would mark it as a vessel of mercy here and prepare it for eternal glory.

To be spiritually poor is to feel this wretched emptiness of spirit, this nakedness and destitution before God. It may be felt most deeply in the lonely hours of the night when no one sees or hears but the Lord. In these moments of stillness and reflection, when the darkness around mirrors the darkness within, the soul often feels how completely empty it is of anything heavenly or divine. The heart cries out as a needy, naked wretch, groaning before the Lord. This experience of poverty is known only to those who are being truly drawn to God, and it is a mark of spiritual life.