The Final Word
Don’t listen to what the world says. Don’t listen to what a loved one says. Don’t listen to what your heart says. At least, don’t let what those sources say be the ultimate guiding voice in your life. They will often tell you what you want to hear even if it’s not for the best, they often aren’t interested in what is for your best, and they often simply don’t know what is the best. Only the truth-telling, love-bestowing, all-knowing God will unfailingly guide you into what is best for every decision, situation and action. That’s why it’s so important that we read the Bible often to hear Him speak into our lives. Today, let God’s Word have the final word.
When Someone Wrongs Us
The normal response is to burn with vengeance inside. The natural reaction is to bring on vengeance outside. When someone wrongs us, we often desire to make things right by making them pay for their wrongdoing. But Jesus modeled a different way of handling the hurts of others. The way of love. The way of forgiveness. The way of grace. This doesn’t mean we skip appropriate justice for serious wrongs; it means we show appropriate pardon for petty ones. And in all wrongs, big and small, we pray the wrongdoers will find their way to Jesus so He can change their hearts and lives for good. Just as He changes ours.
Inviting Others Into Our Joy
One of the primary aims of Christianity is to invite as many people who are far from God into the joy that we have in Him so they can experience it with us. To fight the good fight, finish the race and keep the faith means not only enduring in the gospel ourselves until our homecoming, but also equipping others with the gospel so they can fight on, race on, and keep on when we have gone on, until there is no place left that has not heard the good news of Jesus. A life well-lived is one in which we press on in the faith ourselves and pass on the faith to others so that God is honored in more of us and more of us are happy in Him.
He Opened His Mouth And Taught Them
“And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying…” – Matthew 5:2
When Jesus makes promises, you can count on them to come true. When Jesus gives commandments, you can count on Him to help you. When Jesus transforms hearts, you can count on it changing what you do. The Beatitudes are not a suggestion for how should you live in order to earn your way into His kingdom, but rather a description of how you will live if you have already entered His kingdom. By grace, through faith, producing good works, with love, in power, for joy, to the glory of God. You can have assurance that you are on the right path if there is evidence that you are walking with Jesus on it.
Blessed Are Those Who Are Persecuted For Righteous …
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 5:10
When we pursue God’s way instead of the world’s way, we will find people in our way. Opposition. Persecution. Separation. There will be those who push back and push away because of our allegiance to Jesus. But we can rejoice! For no matter what it costs us now, we will gain infinitely more in the end with the coming of His kingdom of eternal rewards for those who love Him and remain faithful to Him. By His grace, let us keep doing right, keep doing good and keep doing the things that honor our Savior. If others are going to be offended by us, may it be because of our righteous acts and not our sinful ones.
Blessed Are The Peacemakers
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” – Matthew 5:9
To be a peace-maker, we must first be a peace-experiencer. When we put our faith in Jesus, we immediately experience peace with God and increasingly experience the peace of God. With our sin no longer separating us from Him, we are empowered by His grace and His Spirit to be instruments of peace in the lives of other sinners around us. We do this by proclaiming the gospel message and reminding those in conflict of the precious promises made to those who let His peace rule in their hearts instead of being ruled by their sin. Today, let us strive to bring people together with each other and people together with God.
Blessed Are The Pure In Heart
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” – Matthew 5:8
Attraction. Affection. Admiration. Adoration. This is the progression of pleasure for those whose hearts have been purified by God through faith in Jesus, and who are pursuing God by faith with all of their hearts. What starts as interest in Him soon blossoms into love for Him which leads to enjoyment of Him and climaxes with worship to Him. We like how we feel in His presence … how we feel about Him, how we feel about ourselves, how we feel about our lives, how we feel about our futures. So, let us strive to remove those things that keep us from seeing and savoring God for Who He truly is. We will be truly satisfied when we do.
Prioritize Pleasing God
The paths will divide. The objectives will conflict. The plans will differ. The desires will compete. The advice will disagree. We will often find ourselves having to choose sides for who we will listen to, go with and live to the satisfaction of … God or people. We simply cannot be and do what will make Him happy and others happy at the same time, all the time. Rather than compromising to satisfy the crowd, let us show others the better path, the better objective, the better plan, the better desire and the better advice found in the good news of Jesus. Today, by grace, let us prioritize pleasing God over pleasing people.
To Gain All
We go to great measures to gain treasures in this world. But trophies, trips, triumphs, titles, toys, things and time spent on earthly pursuits and pleasures with no regard for eternity will undo us in the end. It’s not that these things are inherently wrong, evil or unprofitable; it’s that we often ignore God to pursue them and value them more than we do Him. God has given us all things richly to enjoy, but the point of that enjoyment is to point us to Jesus. To gain all that the world has to offer yet not have Jesus is to have nothing at all. To gain all that Jesus has to offer yet not have the world is to have everything.
The Prayer That Never Fails
There are many things that are true about prayer. One of them is this: prayer involves seeking what we need to do what God wants. We don’t talk to God in order to secure what we need to build our own kingdoms; we talk to God to request what we need to live for His kingdom. Prayer is not a hotline to heaven we use to override His will so He will give us what we think will make us happy; it is a lifeline to heaven we use to ask Him to show us His will and make us happy with what He gives us. This is the prayer that never fails: Your will be done in my life as it is in heaven.
