Lent: Day Forty-three ~ Blessed are...

Gal. 1: 3-5 Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Blessed are…

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.

Poor in spirit, not poor in the pocketbook. This, to me, means humility. We are to have humble spirits. We come to God as sinners and are usually spiritually empty inside and we seek the true beauty of the Spirit of God. We are not to come to Him in pride but in the humbleness of our souls.

Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.

I believe this to mean the mourning of our sinful nature. Jesus is telling us to align ourselves with Him and to turn from the world of sin. In our mournful state the Holy Spirit is bringing us to a purified state of mind and comforts us.

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.

Simply put: the humble, faithful and patient. Jesus was meek so when he asks us to be meek He is asking us to look to Him ALWAYS and be LIKE Him. Our inheritance of the land is a gift of the earth by God for being meek, humble and righteous in His eyes. I think the spiritualists will see this as loving God and the land as you love yourself. If you have one ounce of drivel of discourse in you, you are showing yourself as impatient and not meek and humble at all.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled.

I love those words hunger and thirst. I find myself hungering for Christ daily and the spiritual renewal of the season is filling my cup to overflowing. I thirst. I feel parched when I am not aligned with God and there is only one quenching my soul can drink in to feel full and that is Christ.

Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.

This one is pretty easy to understand to some, but not all have easiness with this one. Merciful is to be forgiving and compassionate. I see so many fly off the handle and instantly lash out at others before they have time to even think mercifully. How are they to obtain mercy if they cannot show mercy?

1 Pet. 1:3 “In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”

Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.

A pure heart will be clean, shameless, untainted by guilt. Being pure in heart involves having eyes set on God toward heavenly things not earthly. This one may be most difficult because the media is set on saturating us with earthly outlets that we succumb to very easily.  A pure heart has no deception, no trickery and no hidden motives. The pure in heart are transparent and have a desire to please God in all things. It is so much more than an external purity of your behavior; it is an internal purity of your soul.

Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called a child of God.

This one seems to be a no-brainer. Some people like to be at war with hateful words in their heart. We are not called to war but to bring peace to ones soul. Jesus gave His life to make peace between sinners and God and when we exhibit the message of peace to others, we are considered peacemakers. Only children of God can bring the peace of knowing God to others.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

I understand this one to mean being persecuted for Christ. I have been told to stop pushing my faith on people just by posting a scripture or a picture with scripture. I am constantly looked at as  ‘holier than thou’, often told that I’m too strong in my beliefs. Too strong? I love the Lord my God. I walk with Christ as if He were beside me every single second of the day and choices I make, I distinguish mentally from the truth that man physically tries to shove down MY throat.

When I see believers allow the world to use them, I see them as weak testimonies to Christ. Their behavior runs side by side with the people whose life is given to all manner of selfishness and moral perversity. Christians who do not walk strongly in their faith typically are not the ones persecuted, for what would the reason to be? They’re not singing the praises of the Lord in a strong stance against the very things of their worldly nature to merit being persecuted for righteousness.

Pastor Dave a few weeks ago talked about the Beatitudes and how we as Christians should discern them. The first four should be seen as vertical, meaning making things align with God. (Man’s talk/walk with God) The other four should be intellectually seen as horizontally, meaning on the worldly level. (How we live/act/behave) By putting it this way everything made so much more sense to me. Clarity. That’s what this week is bathing me with.

To me, the Ten Commandments were the Laws given by God to Moses. The Beatitudes were the laws transformed by God delivered to man via Jesus. I find God to be the most amazing source of life and in death, I pray that I might meet the Maker and find eternal peace.

Praise be to God!

Pss. 5:1-3 Give ear to my words, O LORD, consider my meditation.

Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray.
My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.