I have had the distinct honor to visit the Holy Land (Israel) twice in my life. I highly recommend such a journey to everyone who is a child of God. It is a life altering experience for anyone, but especially for Christians. Each of my trips included a visit to the hill where Jesus gave His “Sermon on the Mount” in which He illuminated what it looks like to be blessed by God. Recently I was reading this portion of scripture, and it inspired me to revisit these Beatitudes. Might we say that they are “attitudes” that should “be” in our lives?
When we ask some Christians how they are doing, we sometimes hear the phrase, “I am blessed!” Or perhaps the response is, “I am too blessed to be stressed!” The word, “bless” literally means: “empowered to prosper.” The love of God is unconditional, but the blessings of God are not. Jesus Himself taught some of what conditions are necessary to be blessed – to be empowered to prosper by God’s omnipotence. His almighty power is released when the following situations are at play in our lives. In other words, these blessings come as God’s response to us.
Because I wanted to challenge myself, I took the liberty of rephrasing the Beatitudes into a more modern version:
1. We are empowered to prosper by God’s omnipotence when we are at the end of our rope – because less of us means more of God.
2. We are empowered to prosper by God’s omnipotence when we have lost what is most dear to us – because then THE ONE who IS most dear is found by us. Step into Him, step up in Him and step out by His power!
3. We are empowered to prosper by God’s omnipotence when we are content with who we are and what we have. That degree of happiness consists of being satisfied with our present conditions. It is a quiet, uncomplaining, satisfied mind, which positions us to receive more.
4. We are empowered to prosper by God’s omnipotence when we have worked up a good appetite for God, when our hunger drives us to the best meal we could possibly have.
5. We are empowered to prosper by God’s omnipotence when we care, because it indicates that we know that God cares for us. This confidence in Him releases us to care for others.
6. We are empowered to prosper by God’s omnipotence when we get our inside heart and mind put right, because then we can see the outside world from God’s perspective.
7. We are empowered to prosper by God’s omnipotence when we find our place in God’s family, and when we are able to show people how to cooperate because of our willingness to be flexible.
8. We are empowered to prosper by God’s omnipotence when we have a sold out commitment to God – an “all in” attitude, which provokes persecution by others.
Gospel of Matthew 5:1-12
We most certainly have been blessed as children of God in so many ways. However, let me just ask us this question: When we say that we are blessed, what are we really saying? Do we mean that we meet the conditions about which Jesus spoke in order to receive the empowering grace of God? Or is saying that we are blessed just a Christian phrase? I wanted to challenge myself a bit today to go a little deeper.
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