3 “God blesses those who are poor in spirit and realize their need for him,
for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
4 God blesses those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 God blesses those who are humble,
for they will inherit the whole earth.
6 God blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be satisfied.
7 God blesses those who are merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 God blesses those whose hearts are pure,
for they will see God.
9 God blesses those who work for peace,
for they will be called the children of God.
10 God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right,
for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
11 “God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. 12 Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.
Matthew 5:3-12
Dear God, I was listening to this week’s Voxology podcast this morning and they were talking about the new Louisiana law that will put the 10 Commandments into every classroom in Louisiana. While not advocating that any Christian religious symbol or language be mandated in a classroom, they suggested that maybe a better alternative would be the Beatitudes as taught by Jesus at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. That sounded like an intriguing idea, so I thought I would take a look at those verses from Matthew 5 this morning and think about what it might be like for children to at least passively see them regularly.
Honestly, God, it’s pretty amazing and powerful stuff! For children to see that it’s okay to be poor in spirit. To mourn. to be meek. to hunger and thirst for righteousness. To be merciful. To be pure in heart. To be a peacemaker. To even be persecuted (bullied) because of righteousness. What great character traits for everyone to have and to be reinforced.
There is a room in one of our local schools that casually puts the words love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control in big letters on the walls (note, they don’t have peace for some reason). I recognized them as the fruits of the Spirit as described by Paul in Galatians 5:22-23. I’m sure the children don’t. And there is nothing offensive about them so the words are allowed to stay. I am much more interested in this sort of affirmation of your character and what it means to follow you as opposed to listing 10 Commandments from Exodus that, according the Jesus, all of us have broken each one–even if we only hated and didn’t actually kill.
I read an article the other day that talked about how abortions are actually up overall in the U.S. since the Dobbs ruling the overturned Roe v Wade. I think one of our problems is that when we (the moral majority?) feel like we are losing the influence and persuasion battle, we reach for power to enforce our will. What a foolish thing!
Father, help me to lead today with love and patience. Help me to not be afraid to encourage and persuade. Help me to remember to pray for others about whom I care. Help me to willingly take a back seat and even suffer for them. Help me to dive into service of others. That is how you would have me impact the world. Not through power, but through love. I love you, Lord. Help me pass that love of you to others.
I offer this prayer to you in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,
Amen
Emails to God 