Message: The “beattitudes” are a reminder to me that in whatever situation I find myself in, if I am walking with the attributes of God I am blessed. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like blessing though. It feels a lot like punishment because I’m looking at my situations like a transaction and expecting a result that feels good for every situation or trial. According to this passage, even the trials themselves are to be seen as a blessing because of the opportunity it brings for growth. It’s hard to break out of the mindset that blessings always feel good, and things that don’t feel good are not blessings. We don’t even have the capacity to understand what is good or what is truly a blessing. At the end of Matthew 5 in verse 45 I am reminded that God makes the sun to rise on both the evil and the good and he also sends the rain to both the righteous and the unrighteous. Knowing this should free me from trying to interpret whether the rains come as a punishment or a provision.
Command: Walk in obedience and stop trying to interpret my circumstances to determine whether I am being blessed or punished. I am blessed because God is with me.
Promise: God promises that regardless of circumstance I am blessed.
Warning: I don’t have the capacity to understand what is actually good for me. I can only interpret how it makes me feel- which is rarely even accurate. If it had been up to the disciples, Jesus would have never been crucified because it didn’t feel good to Jesus or to them, but without the crucifixion we would be dead in our sin!
Application: If I try to interpret life by blessing or punishment I miss it completely because my emotions are a terrible judge of things! Instead I can rest in the understand that the actual blessing is in knowing that God walks with me through all of it- regardless of how it feels-and that God is good and is for my good! This means I can focus on walking in obedience to God and stop trying to interpret life through the lens of my feelings, emotions and desires.
