Tag: blessed

Attitude Check

Genesis 15 & 16, Proverbs 9, Matthew 5

Devotion by Marcia Railton (IN)

As we read through the Sermon on the Mount, the first of 5 segments of Jesus’ teaching in the book of Matthew, we will spend three days not two on each of the chapters 5-7. Today’s devotion will focus on the first section of chapter 5 – the Beatitudes. Whether this is your first time reading them, or you can quote them all, sometimes it is helpful reading a variety of versions to get a better understanding of Jesus’ words and how to put them into practice. Take special note of some variations of “Blessed”.

Poor in Spirit – Verse 3 – “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (NASB), “Great blessings belong to those who know they are spiritually in need.” (ERV), “the humble, who rate themselves insignificant” (AMPC), “those devoid of spiritual arrogance” (AMP), “those people who depend only on him” (CEV), “Those people who know they have great spiritual needs are happy. (ICB), “’Humble men are very fortunate’ he told them, ‘for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them.'” (TLB)

Those Who Mourn – Verse 4 – “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (NASB), “God makes happy those who are sad. They will have comfort.” (WE), “They are blessed who grieve, for God will comfort them.” (NCV), “Those who mourn are fortunate! for they shall be comforted.” (TLB)

The Meek – Verse 5 – “Blessed (happy, blithesome, joyous, spiritually prosperous—with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the meek (the mild, patient, long-suffering), for they shall inherit the earth!” (AMPC), “Blessed [inwardly peaceful, spiritually secure, worthy of respect] are the gentle [the kind-hearted, the sweet-spirited, the self-controlled], for they will inherit the earth.” (AMP), “God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.” (NLT), “God makes happy those who quietly trust him and do not try to get their own way. The world will belong to them.” (WE), meek also replaced with “gentle” (NASB).

Hunger & Thirst for Righteousness – Verse 6 – “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.” (NASB), “God blesses those people who want to obey him more than to eat or drink. They will be given what they want!” (CEV), “Great blessings belong to those who want to do right more than anything else. God will fully satisfy them.” (ERV), “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for God’s approval. They will be satisfied.” (NOG)

The Merciful – Verse 7 – “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” (ESV), “Great blessings belong to those who show mercy to others. Mercy will be given to them.” (ERV), “Those who show loving-kindness are happy, because they will have loving-kindness shown to them.” (NLV), “God makes happy those who are kind. He will be kind to them.” (WE)

Pure in Heart – Verse 8 – “Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.” (NKJV), “Those who are pure in their thinking are happy. They will be with God.” (ICB), “Happy are the utterly sincere, for they will see God!” (PHILLIPS), “They are blessed whose thoughts are pure, for they will see God.” (NCV)

Peacemakers – Verse 9 – “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” (NABRE), ““Happy are those who work for peace; God will call them his children!” (GNT), “Great blessings belong to those who work to bring peace. God will call them his sons and daughters.” (ERV), “Blessed (enjoying enviable happiness, spiritually prosperous—with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the makers and maintainers of peace, for they shall be called the sons of God! (AMPC)

Persecuted for Righteousness – Verse 10 – “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (ESV), “Blessed are those who suffer for doing what is right. The kingdom of heaven belongs to them.” (NIRV), “Blessed are those who are persecuted for doing what God approves of. The kingdom of heaven belongs to them.” (NOG),

You may have noticed that this list of Beatitudes does not look like the Ten Commandments. It does not tell us what to avoid doing. It does not even specifically tell us what to do. It does not list for us the ten things to make sure we do so that we can check them off the list for each day. It does not say: Blessed are those who read their Bible every day. Blessed are those who spend at least 15 minutes in prayer each day. Blessed are those who tithe 10%, (but 11% is better). Blessed are those who have perfect attendance at every church function.

I am a natural born rule follower who wants to please God. So my first instinct is to want that daily checklist. Can you tell me God, exactly how many minutes of distraction is allowed when I should be focused on You and the job I said I would do for You? Where is the line where human nature crosses over into disobedience? If there was a big red line I might not cross it – too many times – maybe – until I saw how easy it was to cross over to please myself instead of God. Who am I kidding, I might like rules. But I don’t always like following them. Maybe it would be better if I had a checklist, a big red line to not cross and an electric zapper for when I do, which will obviously have to grow in intensity. Or, maybe just an easy 3 warning zaps and then immediate death. Guess what – I wouldn’t make a very good God at all! Thankfully, God is a very good God. And He has designed a very good way for His children – telling us what to do (and not do), and also, here His Son lays out the list of how we are to do what He wants us to do. What does our heart look like when we follow Him?

Having this list of attitudes in no way means that we no longer have to concern ourselves with doing what God wants as well as avoiding the things He doesn’t want. In fact we ought to be doing the things that please God so much that we are getting into trouble, persecuted by the world, for doing the things that God wants us to do. Jesus says, “whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:19b-20 ESV). The Pharisees were the checklist experts! Even tithing on their herbs and not lifting a finger on the Sabbath. They had all God’s laws down pat! They were so diligent – making new laws to protect God’s law, watching others carefully to point out any time they slip, puffed up with pride over how well they checked the boxes, always focused on their checklist, instead of their heart. Jesus said – Do better. Watch your heart. Catch your motives. Strike your pride. Use wisdom.

Realize you are spiritually in need. Get rid of your spiritual arrogance. Be poor in spirit.

Grieve and mourn – not just for your losses, but for what grieves God.

Be meek, humble, gentle. It’s not weakness – it’s being like Jesus.

More than anything else, desire in your own life what God says is right.

Be full and overflowing with mercy and loving-kindness for others.

Make your heart clean with pure, God-honoring thoughts and decisions.

Strive for peace and help others do likewise.

WHILE also being willing to stand up and do right even when the world persecutes you for it.

Do what God wants, in the way that God wants.

Have a humble heart that truly wants to please God.

Watch your attitudes as much as your actions – and you will be blessed.

Reflection Questions

  1. How would you describe the term “blessed”? Is it more than “happy”?
  2. What do you notice about the consequences or rewards for those with these attitudes? Are some for now? Are some for the future? Are some for both? What do you know about God’s promises?
  3. Have you experienced any persecution from the world for doing what is right? If so, was it worth it? What did you learn? If not, why not?
  4. Which of these Beatitudes would you like to focus on increasing in your life this week? What changes will it require?

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for being a good God who still loves and longs for relationship with your very human and imperfect creation. Thank you for your Son who shows us how to be pleasing to You. Help me to see Jesus’ heart and his desires, his attitudes and actions, so I can better seek to reflect that in myself. Help me to diligently work at cleaning out all impurity, pride, and wrong motives and attitudes to be what you want to see in me. Help me to do what you want, in the way that you want. Thank you for your promises for today and for the future. Help me be ready, and prepare others to be ready, for your Son’s Coming Return. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

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The Successful Approach to Life

Old Testament: 1 Samuel 13 & 14

*Poetry: Proverbs 8

New Testament: Acts 2

Proverbs chapter 8 is an extended poem on Wisdom. The chapter is filled with personification where Wisdom is described as being alive and “calling out” to people (v. 4), and “uttering” words of truth and righteousness (v. 7). Also, Wisdom is described as something that is extremely valuable. In fact, she is elevated above any costly material such as silver, gold, and precious gems (vv. 10-11). Nothing can be compared to her. She is the most important treasure that could ever be found.

Why is it that wisdom is so valuable? Everyone knows that it is better to be wise than to be foolish. But what does having wisdom in life actually do for you? Wisdom is more like an outlook and mode of operating than a formula or blueprint. When you have wisdom, you look at life differently, which in turn, causes you to think differently, and thus, act differently. The choices you make in life will be different when you have wisdom. But what is the real difference, you might ask? The difference is that living with wisdom points you in the direction of Yahweh and builds a habit in your life of looking at things from Yahweh’s perspective rather than just our own.

You can think of having wisdom as having the ability to make the right choice and act in the right way in any given situation. Now, that might sound like wisdom is just a bunch of “rule following.” But that can’t be farther from the truth. Wisdom is not about “rules” but about perspective and patterns of thinking and acting. If you want to be successful in school, if you want to find a good spouse, if you want to get a promotion at work, if you want to have money, if you want to know how to deal with difficult people, and so many other aspects of life, wisdom teaches us the way to develop an approach to life that can yield joy, success, and prosperity.

You might be thinking, “Now hold on…are you saying that Wisdom guarantees that I will marry the person of my dreams, be successful, and have lots of money?” The answer is “no.” Wisdom doesn’t automatically yield these things in your life. In vv. 17-19, it says, “I [Wisdom] love those who love me, and those who desire me will find me. 18Riches and glory are with me, enduring prosperity, and righteousness. 19My fruit is better than gold, even better than refined gold, and my gain is better than silver.” If you want to have a good romantic relationship with someone, if you want to have money, and if you want to be successful in life, wisdom prepares and teaches us the principles that can help get us there. There is no guarantee in life that things will go your way if you live with wisdom. But I can guarantee that they will definitely not go your way if you are a fool.

In the closing part of the chapter, Wisdom says that those who follow her teachings (i.e., “keep her ways”) are “blessed” and will “find life” and “obtain favor” from Yahweh. That alone is a good reason to listen to Wisdom!

-Jerry Wierwille

Reflection Questions

  1. Who is one of the wisest persons you know? Describe them. Do any parts of Proverbs 8 remind you of this person?
  2. What are some of the wisest choices you have made? What was the result of each decision? What foolish choices have you made? What were the results of those choices? What upcoming decision do you have to make? How can you work at making a wise decision?
  3. What is your favorite verse(s) in Proverbs 8? Write it out and keep it somewhere you will see often this week. Pray for wisdom.
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Poor in Spirit

Free Theme – Beatitudes – Matthew 5:3

Matthew 5 3 niv

Having just finished Revelation I thought it would be beneficial to revisit Jesus’ teaching for the next six days. There really is no better place to do this than the Sermon on the Mount. In my opinion this is the most important teaching that Jesus gave us. We will be expanding on six of these beatitudes over the course of the next week. Hopefully, a beatitude a day will keep the doctor away and make us spiritually healthy. And yes, my corniness knows no bounds.

So today let’s explore the first beatitude found in Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Let’s start with this first word “Blessed”. What does blessed actually mean? The debate over this topic is varied but I think we can generally assume it simply means happy. I don’t think it means momentary happiness. I believe what Jesus is aiming at here is long term, lasting happiness, the kind of happiness where you know all you are doing and being is worth it.

Now, for the command “poor in spirit”. For the longest time, like longer than a decade, this phrase left me confused. I have talked to all sorts of different pastors and people seeking an explanation but always walked away unsatisfied. I was left feeling like their definition was somehow incomplete. Finally, I heard it defined as spiritual brokenness and this finally made sense. But what does that really mean, right? This story may help.

When I was twenty years old my sister and I swapped vehicles because I was doing a lot of driving and had a truck with terrible gas mileage. My little sister wasn’t driving a lot and she wanted to drive my truck because well, it was really awesome. It was jacked up with a wicked exhaust system. Basically, it was every teenage boy/country girl’s dream truck. One super early Saturday morning my dad woke me up saying “There is something wrong with your truck” and hands me his cell phone with my sister on the line. He then left the room and probably went back to bed.

Much to my surprise on the other end was my now “frantic and scared for her life” sister. She explained to me how the truck had just stopped moving. Even though the engine was still running. Now this probably wouldn’t have been an issue if it was a normal situation but it wasn’t. The truck broke down during the middle of morning traffic on one of the few bridges that stretches for miles across the Hudson River with no shoulder or pull off at all. Even this would have been fine if it had been bumper to bumper traffic which is typical in New York City but it wasn’t. Traffic was moving well, really well actually and cars were flying past her at 60+ mph. She was stuck in the right hand lane of traffic literally praying to God that they would miss the truck.

In this moment she was experiencing the hopelessness of my truck’s brokenness with danger coming fast directly behind her. It is the same way with spiritual brokenness. Without God we are spiritually broken and helpless. The honest truth is that we are in danger and that without God and Christ our “trucks” are not moving on the middle of a highway, that if we were to stay there – it would end in our deaths.

We adopt this attitude of being “poor in spirit” when we realize how much we need God, his son’s sacrifice and how broken we are without him. We acknowledge God’s holiness and that we don’t deserve his grace or his love. We realize there was/is nothing we can do to earn any of what he has done for us. This isn’t condemnation for the sake of making ourselves feel ashamed or worthless rather it is acknowledgement of how much we need him and all that he has done for us. You can look at your sin and say “I suck” or you can look at your sin and say “I have a great, merciful God who loves me more than I understand.”

This is summarized well in the quote “Those who feel their spiritual need.” by Goodspeed.

So, let’s adopt this attitude of brokenness and helplessness before God because not only will we be happy but we will also have the kingdom of God as well.

 

Dan Wall