Beatitudes

The Beatitudes Part 2

/ Mike Farley / Leave a comment

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

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy

Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. It’s funny how this works but I think it goes back to you reap what you sow. When you sow mercy you reap mercy. It’s odd that when you give of yourself and act in merciful kind ways how good you feel, it almost seems selfish in a way. You do good and you feel good, so you want to do more good things. If we could remember that then we would see more mercy come to us in times of need and want. A friend of mine and his wife are always giving of themselves and it seems that when something happens to them (negatively) there is always either someone there to help them or God delivers a miracle to them. That is what this is talking about they are merciful so in return they receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. What an amazing reward, to think that someone who is good enough and keeps themselves pure enough will see God. If only I could be good enough and keep my heart pure then I could see Him, but unfortunately, I am not good enough. Actually, none of us are. Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans that all have fallen short of the glory of God. That means that none of us can see Him on our own. But in the same letter, Paul tells us that we (Christians) have been buried with Him (Jesus) in baptism and raised in newness of life. We are now in Christ (for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God) because of this we can be that one who is pure of heart and get to see God. That is a wonderful thing.

Blessed are the peacemakers, not blessed are the backbiters who pretend to be at peace and then gossip about someone else. Any husband or wife can tell you there are times when you are right but you hold your tongue and let the other person unload their stress. Often times the other person ends up apologizing. When you are the stronger one (not letting people run over you) but strong enough to say I want peace and I will work towards that process then you will see things change. You will see how things seem to come together, the trick of it though is to have peace. You cannot be a peacemaker without having peace in the first place. You have to be at peace with God and yourself before you can help someone else or a situation become peaceful. The reason is because the person or the situation will stress you out. It will push you beyond what is comfortable, but if you have peace then you can overcome that and become a peacemaker.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. This one always makes me smile because a paraphrase is something like “happy are those who get beat up for liking good”. That’s right if you follow Christ then there will be times when someone attacks you for it. Jesus Himself said it “they will hate you because they hate Me” (paraphrase) it might not seem fair to your right now, but think about Jesus on the cross was that fair? It was not fair, but He gave Himself for you, maybe in you devoting your life to Him someone who picked on you and made fun of you will come to Him later on. We don’t know what will be the outcome of our life but we do know how He told us to live it. It is not an easy life but by His strength we can.

Just a thought,

Mike

The Beatitudes Part 1

/ Mike Farley / Leave a comment

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

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy

Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

Behold the Beatitudes! First for clarification beatitudes basically means happiness. The idea is that if you do these things you will have happiness or be blessed. We should also point out real quick that blessing does not mean material wealth. This is not a get rich quick scheme by Jesus. They seem so simple but I believe that if we sought after them with more fervency than we do, we would do well because after all Jesus says “Blessed are…” Let me also clarify these eight things will not save you, but they will help you grow from babes in Christ needing only milk to mature Christians who are able to eat meat (Hebrews 5:12).

Blessed are the poor in spirit, because when we are poor in spirit and weak, Christ is strong in us. The more we are weak and do not rely on our strength but lay ourselves aside we allow Christ to move in us. How many times have you held onto something and said: “I can do this, I will show how strong I am.” We have to rely on the Lord and His strength to work in us, we have to reach the place where we say “Lord I cannot do this I need your help”.

Blessed are those who mourn because they shall be comforted by the Comforter. Mourning is not just when someone passes; I believe we should also mourn for this generation, this nation, and the people of God who have walked away from Him. We should weep and lament over what has happens to some 3,5000 unborn children a day. We should not stop weeping because we got a new TV or video game or what have you. We need to continue to mourn over the things that God Himself mourns over. Put aside your differences with your brother or sister or neighbor. Stop arguing with the Catholics or Protestants; unite in prayer against the true enemy.

Blessed are the meek, but meekness is not weakness. Too many times people do not want to be meek because they think that it is a weakness, but it is the opposite. Meekness is power under control. Christ demonstrated amazing meekness before the cross when he said that at His word there would be twelve legions of angels to rescue Him, that is somewhere in the vicinity of 60,000 angels. That is a lot of power at His disposal but He chose to not use it, instead, He chose to endure that which was placed before Him. Pride says “do it, show them what you’ve got” meekness says “hold back, show them what Christ has”. No meekness is not weakness it is a greater strength than you or I can truly comprehend because it requires us to lay aside our pride.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Have you ever been hungry? So hungry that food is all you can think about, a hunger that possesses your thoughts and takes over your rational thinking? When we get that way there is only one thing we want; to be full. God is asking us for that same feeling here. He wants us to be hungry for Him and His righteousness. The great thing is that if we are hungry for Him we will be filled with Him, it is not a maybe, it is not something that might happen if things work out that way, no it is a promise. YOU WILL BE FILLED. We know the outcome so the question begs why are we not full? I think it is because we are not hungry enough. I think we are born hungry for Him, but we were just fed the wrongs things growing up. We thirst for truth like pure milk and are given a half and half, we are hungry for righteousness and get a righteousness/selfish combination instead. It’s funny to me that it has to be done this way, the enemies of God can’t give us a straight lie because we would not accept it if it were a flat out lie. Instead, they need to sprinkle some truth in it first; let us taste that part of it then hit us with the rest. What we have to do is relearn to eat the good stuff only. Have you ever tried to stop eating junk food? Let’s use fast food as an example. When you first stop you don’t like the taste of the other food, it’s not as sweet or salty or fried but you push on and continue to eat it and after awhile it is the good, so good you don’t remember what the fast food tastes like. Then one day you eat the fast food again and it’s tasty alright but then you have a stomach ache, and you feel drained and weak. You don’t have the energy you had when you ate the good food and it was a waste of time and energy eating the garbage. Truth and lies are the same way. Eat the truth be hungry for the truth and the lies of the enemy will become bitter and turn your stomach, but first, you have to eat from the true vine.

 

To be continued…..