Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven

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

For many years I have read this without understanding the phrase poor in spirit. Only recently I discovered the interpretation from various sources. Instead of explaining with a few single word, poor in spirit means something like the opposite of self-righteousness. It is not strictly about humility. It is a person who realises that it is beyond his ability to achieve any kind of right standing or do anything that will be counted as anything in God's eyes. Our Lord Yshua opened the teaching of the Beatitudes with this because people need to reach this stage of poor in spirit before they can realise they need a Saviour to help them get right with God. Without this realisation the journey with Messiah cannot even begin. By ourselves, the situation is quite hopeless since we cannot earn any kind of salvation, then the realisation that Yshua has done it for us gives us the confidence that indeed we have the kingdom of heaven.