The Beatitudes

In Matthew chapter 5 Jesus teaches two very important lessons for life:

The Beatitudes

The Lords Prayer

The Beatitudes are fundamental to our walk with Christ - they point, guide and teach us about what matters to Jesus.

As I have started to look at the Beatitudes I am also looking at myself, my own heart, to see how I am following these teachings of Jesus.

The word BLESSED is taken from the word makarios and comes from the root 'mak'. This indicates large or of long duration. The word BLESSED is an adjective suggesting happy, a condition in which congratulations are in order. It is a grace word that expresses special joys and satisfaction granted to the person who experiences salvation. God wants to give His people tremendous favour, health, peace and joy in their lives.

Jesus said "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

What comes to mind when I think of 'poor'? Possibly someone who has very little in material things and particularly in finances. However, Jesus referred to being Poor in Spirit.

It is my understanding that if I am poor in spirit it means that I am unqualified to have a relationship with Jesus. It means that I am lost. Completely lost.

The apostle Paul says in Philippians 3 " Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for who I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if by any means I may attain the resurrection from the dead".

Paul said everything in his life had been "loss" and "rubbish" until he met Jesus and "the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord" . Meeting Jesus changed everything. The old had gone. His life in Jesus became worth living.

In The Message Bible the experience of Paul is described as follows:

"The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash- along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant - dog dung. I've dumped it all into the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by Him.... ... I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience His ressurrection power, be a partner in His suffering and go all the way with Him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it." Now, although this isn't as elegantly put Paul realises that he was "Poor in Spirit" and things he had believed were so important to him had simply disappeared compared with living a Christ filled life.

I believe that I was once lost and "Poor in Spirit" and when I saw my spiritual poverty and confessed my self-relience, self-sufficiency, self centredness and my sin, I was able to seek and accept the gift of grace which was freely offered to me by my Heavenly Father.

I have come to Jesus and put my trust in Him. Now I revel in a relationship with the King of Kings. A relationship that can never be taken away from me. A relationship that will never end. A relationship that will grow and blossom day after day after day. For eternity.

I recognised that I was "Poor in Spirit" but now I am BLESSED for a long (never ending)duration and the kingdom of heaven is mine.

How about you?