January 5
Genesis 9-10
Psalm 4
Proverbs 1:10-14
Matthew 5:1-26
Blessed
“ Blessed are the poor in spirit…blessed are those who mourn…blessed are the lowly…blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…blessed are the merciful….blessed are the pure in heart…blessed are the peacemakers….blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness…blessed are you when people insult you, and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” Matthew 5:3-11 LSB
This list does not sound like the blessings I want to sign up to receive. When we think of a blessing we think of someone giving us something good, something that we want. And when we say that we are blessed, we generally mean that we are experiencing favor or we are fortunate to have the benefit of something. Most of the things on this list do not sound like things I would be thankful for or consider myself blessed to be experiencing.
This passage is taken from “The Sermon on the Mount that Jesus preached early in his ministry. Jesus’ teaching was very different from anything the people had ever heard. He was not offering a new set of dos and don’ts for Godly living. What He offered was a glimpse of the power that was available through the power of His Spirit. What was unattainable through their own power and strength, was made possible through the promise of the salvation He offered. He was attempting to redefine what it meant to be devoted to God. He wanted them to understand that God was more interested in their hearts than their performance. He wanted to change them from the inside out and He knew that the only way to do that was to provide His Spirit to indwell His people and create a new heart within them.
In our flesh, we desire to be rich in spirit, bold, satisfied, loved by all, and experiencing only peace and justice in our lives. But with those things come pride, entitlement, greed and selfishness. God’s desire for us is so much better than those things. He knows that in order to develop love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness and self-control, we must experience the opposite of those things. We will not learn to be kind to others if we have never experienced what it feels like to be treated unkindly. We cannot develop patience if we never need patience. We cannot appreciate peace if we have never known adversity and enmity. God allows us to experience difficulties so that we can develop godliness. He humbles us so that we will not experience the destruction of pride. We do not live a blessed life because we never experience anything negative. We live a blessed life when we understand and recognize God’s favor and protection no matter what circumstances we are experiencing.
Comments