Blessed Are ...

Jesus taught a pretty powerful, yet concise sermon, which we can read in the fifth Chapter of Matthew. It's been called the Sermon on the Mount. The principles for effective Christian life that He laid out in that sermon have become known as The Beatitudes. Let's take a look at what Jesus had to say.

And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake." - Matthew 5:2-11 (KJV)

I think it is probably easy for most of us to look at those words and find peace with their meaning. We focus on what it means to be poor in spirit, or what it means to mourn. We look at persecution and come to grips with that. Being pure in heart seems to make sense to us. So we are happy to buy into all of Jesus' principles for effective Christian life.

But if you're like me, you find that even after agreeing with Jesus, and going out to live your life His way, you somehow come up short. You work on being humble, transparent and on confessing better than anyone, ever. You start forgiving the ungrateful people you serve at church almost as quickly as they start to whine about what you've contributed (or not contributed). And yet you may find yourself thinking something like, "Okay God, where is the blessing? I did my part, but I still have problems. I still have issues. What's up with that?"

I lead Step Studies in Celebrate Recovery, only with men. I often ask the guys to reflect on the meanings of the words in Scripture. But recently God took me to The Beatitudes. He said, "Now I want YOU to reflect on some words!" And the words God wanted me to reflect on were the same in every verse. "Blessed are ..." What does blessed mean? What does it look like to be the blessed ones?

I have to confess that I thought it would mean being thin and svelte. I thought the blessed would have little, if any sin to confess. It seems preposterous, but I wanted the blessed to have no issues, hurts, hang-ups or bad habits. I assumed that it was the blessed who left the pile of wheelchairs on the stage at the last Benny Hinn stadium rally. Based on that standard then, no matter how well I lived the principles that Jesus gave me in Matthew 5, I still didn't feel blessed. God had to confront me with the truth.

It turns out that to be blessed means to be consecrated, holy, sanctified. It means to be sacred and divinely or supremely favored, maybe even fortunate (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/blessed). It would seem that those in this position would have their needs met ... and more. They would be at peace, and be content. Their circumstances wouldn't overwhelm them.

So wow! This is a pretty big contrast to conventional thinking then! And as I take stock of my life today, truly I am blessed. God forgive me for missing that point.