The Beatitudes

Meditations based on readings from

The Story of My Life As Told by Jesus Christ

September 2, 2019

The Beatitudes

Page 94

Matthew 5:1-12; Luke 6:20-26

Not long ago a friend commented to me that the Beatitudes were great prose, but not a realistic expectation for our way of life. I immediately remembered something I heard Stephen Covey say. (Covey is the author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.) While Covey was discussing Habit Number Four, have a Win/Win attitude, a businessman said to him that such an attitude was totally unrealistic in business. Covey responded by asking the man a question: “How long do you think you would stay in business if you were a winner but your customers felt like losers? Or, how long do you think you would stay in business if your customers were winners, but you were the loser in your business deals?”

I responded in a similar manner to my friend. I asked, “What kind of life would you have if it were dominated by the opposite of the Beatitudes? What follows a person with a haughty attitude? What happens when people are demanding, divisive, or critical?”

As we ponder these high expectations Jesus has for his followers, it is important to remember Jesus is not teaching us to work harder. He is calling us to re-orient our lives to him. We are poor in spirit when we recognize we can’t save ourselves, no matter how hard we try. We mourn as we repent of our self-sufficiency. We’re meek when we surrender control to God. We hunger and thirst for righteousness when we are no longer satisfied living as the center of our universe. We are merciful when we realize how exceedingly merciful God is with us. We have a pure heart when we recognize that nothing surpasses knowing God. We become peacemakers because we want to share the wonder of living in peace with God our Creator. We endure persecution because we eagerly await the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to us on the day of his return. (See 2 Timothy 4:8 and Hebrews 12:2)

My Takeaway: Seeking to live out the Beatitudes is setting a very high expectation for life. Even so, I have found it is so much better than the alternatives our culture offers.

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.