I enjoyed reading the Beatitudes this past week.Matthew 5:3-12
"Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the gentle,
for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you,
and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me.
Rejoice, and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great,
for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
I have read these many times (and memorized them before) but when I was reading I started to wonder do I really understand what it means to be "poor in spirit"? Surely it doesn't mean to feel mopey and blue... I decided I had better delve a little deeper. I appreciated what Clarke's commentary on the book of Mathew had in it: "One who is deeply sensible of his spiritual poverty and wretchedness." That really made me do some thinking. I need to completely aware that without Christ my life is wretched and totally spiritually poor. We are all like that on our own, no matter who we are! It doesn't matter that I was raised in a Christian home and have hardly missed a church service, and tried to live right. That is good but it doesn't change the fact that I by myself am full of spiritual poverty and wretchedness. We all need Jesus and without him we are worthless.
The next section says "Blessed are those that mourn". I think this could be taken fairly straight forward but I do think Clarke brings out an interesting thought that it could be speaking of those that mourn with a Godly sorrow. A sorrow relating to our being poor in spirit. When we mourn over our spiritual poverty and cry to God, He will comfort and help us to make a change.
The word Blessed can also be said as "happy". I know I like to be happy and I am thank-ful that God has given us these loving instructions on how to live a happy, blessed life. It is my goal to be poor in spirit, mourn over my sins, be gentle, eagerly desire to live righteously, be merciful, have a pure heart and be a peacemaker. I can't say that I am eager to be persecuted but if I am I certainly want it to be because I am living righteously and if that will make me grow and refine me to be more like Jesus then I want that too.
God does bless in so very many ways, I am glad that I can live for Him!
To me God's blessings include all the simple little beautiful things that we can see everywhere.
