Prescription for Blessedness

Prescription for Blessedness
Matthew 5:3-10

by Estelle Nazary

The Constitution guarantees every citizen the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These seemed basic rights to the Founding Fathers and surely without them we would be miserable.

Happiness is a sometime thing, here today and gone tomorrow. God offers us something far better - that includes all the good we could hope for in achieving happiness and infinitely more, a permanent joy that is not affected by the ups and downs of life - a condition called blessedness.

In Matthew 5:3-10, we have a prescription for blessedness from Jesus. We must first experience the new birth, regeneration, repentance and faith in redemptive work of Christ of the cross. When we have this experience and forgiveness of sins, we share this experience with others and are a blessed person. In order for this blessedness to reach its peak and become a unique experience we must fulfill certain conditions. Christ gives us 8 steps that we must climb in order to reach the summit of heavenly blessedness upon this earth. We must aim at growth, maturity, and a full expression of dormant qualities that lie within.

What the Lord is giving us here is guidance on how to grow to that mark He has set before us even though we cannot fully attain it down here.

Blessed - Here is the way to blessedness

The degree of our blessedness is determined by our meeting of the conditions laid down by Jesus here. They tell of the natural consequences of our attitudes as Christian in this life. Persian legend - certain king needed a faithful servant and had to choose between 2 fine men. They each had fixed wages and where to fill a basket of water from the well. He would inspect work in the evening. One decided it was useless and quit. Other worked all day until he drained the well. Looking down he saw something shiny - a beautiful diamond - "Now I see the use of pouring water in a basket. If the bucket had brought up the ring before the well was dry, it would have been in the basket. Our work was not useless - Remember when God's blessings does not coincide with your expectations wait until the well is dry. Think twice every time when you ask God to bless you. You are asking for his promises to be fulfilled in your life and they bring both sunshine and rain. Both are needed.

There are no accidents in our lives just providence and whatever touches us touches Him first.
--Great Christian injured in auto accident regained consciousness, nurse said don't talk you've been in a frightful accident. He said, "There are no accidents in the life of a Christian, just incidents of God's work within"

Theodore Roosevelt had 2 pair of glasses because he was near-sighted and he carried them in a heavy steel case. When he went to Milwaukee and was shot, the bullet was slowed by the case and his manuscript. He had always considered the case a burden to carry and here it saved his life.

We may need to thank God for some failure, loss, and sickness in our life. It may be more of a blessing than we realize. It may be that God is working within you instead of the devil working against you. To be blessed is to live in a dark world with the light of Christ within...

1. All Christians are to be like this:
Read Beatitudes and you will find description of what every Christian is meant to be. Jesus never intended that a chosen few should reach this height of the Christian life and the rest of us meant to live on the dull plains. We are all meant to exemplify everything contained in the Beatitudes.
2. All Christians are meant to manifest all of these characteristics. It is not that some would manifest one characteristic and some another...No, every Christian is meant to be all of them and to manifest all of them at the same time.
3. None of these descriptions refers to what we may call a natural tendency. Each is produced by grace alone and the operation of the Holy Spirit upon us. These are not natural tempers, but given to each by the Holy Spirit. We are born differently, some are born aggressive, others are quiet, some are alert and fiery, others are slow. We find ourselves as we are, but God's spirit can help us grow and develop each of these characteristics.
4. These descriptions indicate clearly the essential utter difference between the Christian and the non-Christians. The difference between the two has become blurred, the world has come into the church and the church has become worldly. The line is not as distinct as it was. Our ambition should be to be like Christ, the more like Him the better, and the more like Him we become the more we shall be unlike everybody who is not a Christian. Find out what each of us is seeking and what we really want and it will tell where we stand with God. We must be consistent.
5. The Christians and the non-Christians belong to two entirely different realms. 1st and last Beatitude promise the same reward, "for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven," Our Lord starts and ends with it because we must realize we belong to a different kingdom.

Do we belong to the kingdom? Are we ruled by Christ? Is He our King and our Lord? Are we manifesting these qualities in our daily lives?

Verse 3 - Blessed are the Poor in Spirit
This is key to all that follows, definite order in the Beatitudes. There is a spiritual logical sequence here. This one must come at the beginning for good reason that there is no entry into the Kingdom of heaven apart from it - There is no one in the Kingdom of God who is not poor in spirit. It is fundamental characteristic of Christian and all others are a result of this one. This one is an emptying, while the others are a manifestation of a fullness. We cannot be filled until we are first empty. Conviction always precedes conversion.

Poor in spirit does not mean nervous, retiring, weak, or lacking in courage. It's not those who stand in the background. I am a nobody, I don't count - not one who makes great sacrifice, nor retires out of life and its difficulties and responsibilities.

Look at the life of the Lord Jesus. He became a man. He was God, but he decided while on earth to live as a man though He was still God. He said, "I can do nothing of myself." I am utterly dependent upon the Father. Look at his prayer life. It is as you watch Him praying and realize hours he spent in prayer and you see his poverty of spirit and his reliance upon God. That is what is meant by poor in spirit. It means a complete absence of pride, a complete absence of self-assurance and of self-reliance. It means a consciousness that we are nothing in the presence of God. It is nothing that we can produce, it is nothing that we can do in ourselves. We look to God in utter submission to Him and in utter dependence upon Him and his grace and mercy. To experience what Isaiah did "Woe is me. I am a man of unclean lips."

The way to become poor in spirit is to look at God. Look at Jesus and his book. "Lord increase our faith" as the apostles prayed. You cannot truly look at Him without feeling your absolute poverty and emptiness.