When I was younger I set out to conquer the world in many ways. I wanted a good and fulfilling life…….someone to love me and someone I could love. I wanted peace in my life, happiness and joy. I think that is what most of us want….fulfillment……peace……. happiness and joy in our day to day lives. As I look back…… I didn’t know any better…and I sought those things without really knowing how to achieve them. I sought them through work….if I worked hard enough…I would be somebody. I sought them through my friends…..only somehow…my identity became intertwined with who I thought everyone wanted me to be. When life hit back at me….I sought to counterbalance the pain with pleasure….money, sex, drugs. I could never figure out why…. what I wanted most in life always seemed just out of my reach. All my relationships seemed to be strained in one way or another, day to day life become hard to handle. I always had this deep faith down inside me….a God shaped hole that I could never fill…..that I didn’t know what to do with…I loved God…..but it came to a point that I felt that I blew it……how could He love me? I cried out in my heart and in my solitary moments when I was all alone.
It wasn’t until I realized that life wasn’t about the quantity of things I did……. the “exploits” I had……… the pleasures I kept pursuing…….. BUT ….. that it was about the “quality” of my daily walk in life and my daily walk with God. And that, I believe is so much what the Beatitudes are all about. You’ll notice that each of these attitudes that Jesus tells us will bring fulfillment to our lives….is an outward attitude toward others…….. as well as an inner strength.
Here is something we can all agree on, tough times come into the lives of everyone. At some point, everyone walks through the valley of sorrows. Jesus makes it very clear that when difficult things come to all of us….. and they will………He will sustain us…….. so that we can enjoy life again. The key to experiencing sustaining joy and fulfillment in life is found in our faith in God.
We have looked at the first four principals that Jesus said would bring happiness and fulfillment to our lives regardless of what’s going on in the world around us. While we can’t control what’s happening around us, we can prepare ourselves to survive anything that happens in our lives. The life that we have with Jesus is something that happens in the center of our beings.
Let’s take a look at the next two Beatitudes:
In Verse 7, Jesus tells us, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”
So….what is “mercy”? I think we can understand it better if we first compare it to “grace”. Grace is an exemption……”grace” is shown to the undeserving and is often associated with people who are doing the wrong thing. “Mercy” is “grace in action”. “Mercy” is exercising “grace”….it’s not simply feeling compassion….it’s doing something to alleviate the the pain or what’s going on in someones life.
I had a friend who was laid off and was struggling financially. I really felt bad for him…..that is “Grace”…….I said to wife…“I feel bad about $100 for this family”…. She agreed…….that’s “mercy”.
Jesus gives us the best imagery of “mercy” in the story of the Good Samaritan. Let me set the background here….Jesus has just been asked how can someone inherit eternal life. His answer is prolific,
Luke 10:27 ( TNIV )
……‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
Then he is asked, “Who is my neighbor”? Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan. It is important to understand that Jesus was talking to an expert in Jewish law….and in the time of Jesus, there was a lot of animosity between the Jews and Samaritans…they were practically enemies. So, Let’s look at how Jesus answers this devout Jewish expert in the law to his question, “who is my neighbor?”.
Luke 10:30-37 ( TNIV )
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ 36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
On the Cross, Jesus extended “mercy” when He, being crucified with criminals crucified on a crosses to His left and to His right, looked at the crowd and said:
Luke 23:34 ( TNIV )
…“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”
Happiness and fulfillment in life comes through realizing that in the same way that we are merciful to others God is merciful to us……He looks at us with mercy and compassion. The word “merciful” implies generosity….forgiveness…. and compassion…. and it includes a desire to remove the wrong as well as alleviate the suffering.
Jesus tells us in verse 8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
The “pure in heart “ do more than just do the right things when it is convenient….Jesus is very clearly putting emphasis on the purity of our inner being. The root of everything that we do day to day is our inner person. This is why Jesus calls for purity. If our hearts are pure, we have no problem doing the right things.
Psalms 24:3-4 ( TNIV )
3 Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 Those who have clean hands and a pure heart….
What does it mean to be pure in heart? One thing that it means is to live “without hypocrisy”. Hypocrites are miserable…they truly are not very happy with themselves. Purity of heart is not just being “outwardly” clean…it is being “inwardly” clean in the secret recesses of our heart. If we have a pure heart, we have one purpose—to glorify God in all that we do.
In 1981 There was woman who was effectively blind from birth….she could only see blurs and outlines…nothing was in focus. A surgeon was able, with today’s advances, to operate and restore her sight. The newspaper reported that ……” she found that everything was ‘so much bigger and brighter’ than she ever imagined”. In the same way….when we adopt these attitudes in our lives…… and sometimes even struggle to make them a part of our being……..”everything is so much bigger and brighter , life is more robust than we can even imagine. “ Life comes into focus. We start to see with so much more clarity. Jesus promised it right here…..”we can see God”.
I think this is what blind and deaf Helen Keller meant….. when someone bluntly said to her…..“Isn’t it terrible to be blind?” ……she responded, “Better to be blind and see with your heart, than to have two good eyes and see nothing.”
Jesus’ words tell us how to get 20/20 “spiritual vision”. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
The “BE-attitudes”….these attitudes are building blocks that….if we apply this wisdom……..will bring peace and fulfillment to our lives.
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