This morning I was laying in bed thinking about “the Beatitudes.” It’s a passage in Matthew where Jesus gives the “Sermon on the Mount,” as people call it (which is odd to me, cause I bet a lot of His sermons were “on the Mount,” but I digress.)
The verses read like this in the New International Version (NIV),
“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for Him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.” (I skipped a line because I want to focus on these three.)
“He blesses those who are poor.” Other versions say, He blesses those who are sad. Like, those who just aren’t satisfied.
Here’s where I’ve gotten; Those who have a hope in anything other than Christ, will not be able to see their need for a new hope in Christ. Those who believe they are capable in their own strength, will not be seeking more strength. Therefore, only those who are looking for Him, those who are needy and those who do not have any hope at all, are the ones who will be looking hard enough to see Jesus. Otherwise, our temporary satisfaction in the readily available will have us too distracted to even want to see Him.
Hebrews 11 says that we must, first, believe He exists and, equally important, is that we believe “He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Diligently.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all quote Dueteronomy when they say, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart.” But the scripture doesn’t stop there. They quote it further saying also, “all your mind, soul and strength,” too.
That’s everything.
One more verse though; Matthew 13:11 says that “those who do not have” {Jesus}, (if they hold onto the ‘nothing-they-call-something; e.g. a talent, a person, hope in money or skill, etc.) “will lose even what they do have.”
I believe the Savior here, is saying that only those who know they absolutely need Him, those who are in complete desperation, are the only ones that are even able to see Him! If there is any amount of self-reliance, or any hope in people, or any confidence in our ability or what we have, then our confidence is in the wrong thing. We will eventually lose even the confidence we do have, and whatever it is we put above Jesus.
God knows that nothing on this earth is capable of supporting, assisting, guiding, or satisfying us like Him. He created us to hope in Him. He is the only thing, living or dead that has any possibility of sustaining us through this life, and conversely, He will also sustain us forever. Anything else has the potential to destroy us once we’ve reached the point where we’ve exhausted it of its usefulness.
What then? When the one thing that made sense to us, the thing we thought would get us through to the end, the one “stable” thing we could always depend on, stopped being able to help us. We could get to the point where we’ve only ever practiced with its help. Where we’ve gone through life using this crutch, but in the end we realize our legs give out as fast as the wood decays. Our hope is destroyed. Our way of life ends up no longer viable.
This is the point God when can start revealing Himself. Ecclesiastes says; “Frustration is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart.” Other versions say “sorrow has a refining effect on us.”
Our running from pain and suffering has brought a lot of pain and suffering into this world. There are lessons in this world that will build us and strengthen our abilities. There are challenges and conquests where, in our overcoming them, we are better for it.
But we run as soon as we feel the pressure, and we never get the benefit of feeling the suffering. We just simply, suffer. When we run, we run from the strength God is offering us to get through, a strength that will remain after the battle.
Overcoming is a really, really hard thing to do. Being in a place where you need a miracle is often the only moment where you get one. If we take the safe route or avoid the hard parts, the miracle gets delayed. It’s set aside until we truly need it again.
The miracle is coming. The strength you need, is here.
Being an overcomer? There is nothing like it. Just gotta stick it out. Embrace the struggle as if embracing it is the goal. Cause it is. Once we are where we can lean in and relish the strength that comes through the hard stuff, then, we become a little more like Jesus, and we gain all the benefits of being an overcomer.
Jesus “was tempted in every way, yet did not sin.”
Have I gone that far yet?
If we want to be like Jesus, then we need to be like Jesus. “Hungry.”
Get hungry.
Live hungry.
Use it.
God bless you.
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