One of the areas that I have felt this was when Jesus talks about the Beatitudes. Those blessed are statements have never seemed to make much sense to me. But as I have studied more and begun to understand more of what Jesus talked about I begin to see a theme to the beatitudes that I previously didn't see there. The Beatitudes start in Matthew chapter 5.
"And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
3“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
10“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
As I began to look at these statements i began to notice that they are the opposite of what we try to have in our life. None of us want to be poor in spirit or meek, and most certanly none of us want to mourn. Yet for the people that posses these they are blessed in a variety of ways. So maybe there is something to these.
After studying more I began to notice that Jesus is talking about how things in the Kingdom of God are going to be and how we should be now. We should be poor in spirit because the proud in spirit won't rely on god the way we all should. Those who mourn are mourning over the sin in their own lives and the damage it has done to our relationship with God. The meek don't look proudly on themselves but allow themselves to be humble.Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are never satisfied with where they stand with God, they always want more of him. The pure in heart discipline themselves to see the sinfulness for what it is and separate themselves from it. And those that are persecuted have a conviction that no many can every take away from them.
No wonder those that display these attributes are called blessed by Christ. This is how we all should live. It isn't natural by any means but it puts us in the proper perspective with God. We stop believing the lies about ourselves and how good we are and we are convinced of the goodness of God.
So which of these do you need to work on?
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