The Beatitudes

The lesson from chapter 5 is sticking with me this week. When I first looked over Matthew Chapter 5 I realized we had to take this one slow. There is so much to glean from the Beatitudes that I decided to just camp there this week and save the rest of the chapter for our study next week..here is the highlight from our Tuesday study:

The Beatitudes: Beatitude means/to be happy, Matthew shows us a constitution to happiness..”How to be happy” The attitude you should have..BE Attitude

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for these have the kingdom of heaven:, realize your own spiritual poverty.
What do you compare Yourself to, spiritually? If it is Jesus/ you will be poor in spirit. Happiness begins with the knowledge of, “I am not okay, I am a sinner.

Blessed are they that mourn:

Once you realize you are poor in spirit/ then you mourn over your sin. The prostitute that fell at Jesus feet and wept over her condition/ she found comfort. Jesus touched her and healed her..after she showed willingness to mourn over her sin. WOW I am a sinner!

Blessed are the Meek:

Strength under control! Moses was known for His meekness..He was known for this in the OT. in Numbers 12:3 it declares Moses as the meekest man on the face of the earth. Jesus was known for meekness in the NT...the only autobiographical description of His personality, Jesus said, in Matthew Chapter 11:29 “ I am meek and lowly of heart.”
So, after a person realizes he is poor in spirit, begins mourning, then he will find himself/ herself meek with his strength harnessed for the purpose of the king and Him alone.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.

In the first 3 beatitudes it speaks of being emptied. Notice the order here: First you’re poor in spirit (see your sin/ God’s authority) Second mourn ( feel sorry for your sin, grieve over it) Third, Meekness ( emptied of self, ready to serve the KING)

Now we see a hunger and Thirst after righteousness..When we are not in this condition of hungering and thirsting after righteousness could it be it is because we have not emptied ourselves so we are not hungry?
We all say we want more of the Lord, but do we count the cost? Are we willing to get rid of self-glory, willing to humble ourselves? It is sad when you look around and see the lack of power and faith in the church..the old saying is...you must go down first to go up! There is an order here in this passage!

We all say we want more of the Lord, but do we count the cost? Are we willing to get rid of self-glory, willing to humble ourselves? It is sad when you look around and see the lack of power and faith in the church..the old saying is...you must go down first to go up! There is an order here in this passage!

Blessed are the merciful;

once you have gone through the emptying process and you are filled with God’s love, you will now find the ability to have mercy toward others...no longer judgmental, critical, or analytical toward others. Truly, the more righteous you are, the more merciful you will be !


Blessed are the pure in heart..for they shall see God!

Clean and pure hearts are different! We all have clean hearts when we have embraced Jesus as our Lord and savior. But a pure heart is one not distracted by the things of this world. This is sort of self explanatory..If you muck up your life with alot of STUFF..trinkets of this world, houses, clothes, TV, theatre, boats, novels, sports, friends even, on and on..how will your heart be stayed on Jesus? You will be distracted too much, too focused on the world and your heart will be given over to those things..Watch out! It happens to all of us..Happiness? Another reason why we aren’t!! Do you want to see God or not?

Blessed are the peacemakers..

Do you make peace or bring confusion and strife to relationships. We all have choices at times in our families..do we “share” that bit of gossip, do we indulge in complaints against others? I guarantee if your are living the first 3 Beatitudes these last 3 will be easily conquered. How can we forgive, show mercy, bring peace, have a heart for God if we have not Humbled ourselves, mourned over our sin, yoked ourselves to Christ in meekness? So often we try hard to forgive, show mercy, bring peace and fail..I say to you today, go back to the beginning, take a hard look at your sin, mourn over it, and receive Christ’s forgiveness and then, only then will you thirst and hunger to do what is right!


Blessed are those that are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven..

If you are living these beatitudes, you will be persecuted! I promise you! If you are not being persecuted, well..maybe your not living these. I ahve found over and over again, when I am proclaiming Christ, loving Him, I am persecuted. People do not want to be face with their sin., Jesus( just the name even) reveals things, things that people don’t want revealed..Jesus is saying in this passage:

Doing these things, living them out, you will be happy, these are the attitudes to have in life, but guess what, you may be happy, but you will be persecuted also..Just as He was!

I just want to say: Living the Christian life is easy, but difficult. Haha..what does that mean you say? Well, it is not rules, formulas, and ten steps to happiness..that is not what these Beatitudes are about, it is emptying ourself, confessing. realizing our sin, mourning over it, and crying out to Jesus like Isiah did, the prostitute did, and confessing our inability but proclaiming his ability.