All of us in our journey as christians have had doubts about our relationship with God. We all have had doubts on whether our journey with Jesus is evolving and whether our characters are being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. We have all asked questions such as: "am I in good standing with God?"... "is there something that I'm missing to be in 'good terms' with God?"... "where am I currently with God?"... among other similar questions. Here's the thing, these and many other questions are only natural! After all, we're constantly seeking God and trying to understand how to improve our relationship with Him and with others. We're constantly seeking how to please Him and live lives that resemble Jesus' example. We all want to know whether our journey is indeed being fruitful. Well, Jesus anticipated we were to have these kinds of intrigues and left us a clear picture of a christian's journey.
As we've discussed before, I believe there's no better sermon suited for all mankind, and specially for christians, than the Sermon of the Mount in Matthew 5 to 7 (see post "The Boldest Sermon Ever Preached"). It should come at no surprise that in the very first portion of His sermon, Jesus very carefully, and in the simplest and most refreshing words he could find, clearly outlined the journey that we are to live as christians; the transformation that we are to have as we get closer to Jesus, to God. This 'first portion' of His Sermon is most commonly know as "the Beatitudes" and we christians love to make printouts of these verses and put them in our Kitchens and bathrooms... but beyond the "prettiness" of the verses, there's a very deep and carefully crafted message to us all.
We all want to grow in Jesus and for Jesus. The essence of christianity is a personal relationship with Jesus which inadvertently transforms our characters and our very selves for the better. The Beatitudes carefully outline that journey that we undergo as we get closer to Jesus and serves as a map to understand where we are. As opposed to a real world map, though, in which you can actually arrive at your final destination, a christian's journey is never ending. For as long as we live and connect with Jesus, we will grow and mature spiritually and mentally and most importantly, we will love as Jesus did. Thinking less about ourselves, and more about serving others. With this, let's talk about the christian's journey outlined in the Beatitudes.
Step #1: Recognize that there's a missing piece
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven." - Matthew 5:3
The very first Beatitude and the very first step as christians is to self-recognize that we need Jesus. As we've talked about in our previous post about purpose, life without God is meaningless. Without God it is possible to have happy moments, but impossible to find true happiness in life; this helps explain why so many wealthy people who seemed to have everything they could ever wanted, fall pray to depression, drugs, and even suicide. Only God fills the void in every human life - without Him we're just walking masses doomed to death and be forgotten. Quite often is in our downs and lows when we realize that we're in need of something else, of someone who can rescue us.
Within the context of the verse, we can easily swap the words 'blessed' for 'happy', and 'poor in spirit' for 'unhappy'. With this 'translation' if you may, we read "happy are the unhappy, for theirs is the kingdom of God." You only know you're unhappy when you realize that you're missing something important, and you get back to being happy when you realize that the 'something' you thought was missing, has been with you all along. That is how God operates in our lives.
When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” - Mark 2:17
God can only enter and fill our lives when we give him the opportunity; when we realize that there's nothing we can do for ourselves to make us feel complete. It is when we come to the realization that we're unhappy, that we have poor-spirits, and we look at God that we then become happy because we know that missing piece had been there all along. The kingdom of heaven is for all of us who realize that we need God in our lives... and that my brother and sister, is more than enough reason to feel blessed, happy, and very loved!
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Step #2: Mourn
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted..." - Matthew 5:4
Have you ever been to a church where the Pastor at the end makes a call for all who feel they need Jesus to come forward? If not, have you ever felt the urge to just go on your knees and fully open your self to God because you recognize that you're unworthy of His love, forgiveness and mercy? In none of these scenarios the person is jumping out of gladness, but mourning because he/she has just realized that God's love is a gift beyond human comprehension.
See my friend, once we realize that there's something missing in our lives and we see that God's gifts and salvation are readily open to us we feel happy, but then at the same time undeserving of His love. We mourn because we know we have failed in our lives, we have perhaps lied, deceived, cheated, lived crazy lives and despite ANYTHING we might've done in our past, Jesus says... "Come to me and I will give you rest". What a feeling! Being redeemed by the power of love by a God who loved us so much that he'd rather lose everything for us, than live with everything without us. Jesus said blessed, happy are those who mourn... for they shall be comforted. Mourning my friend, is the next step in our Journey with Jesus.
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Step #3: Meekness
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." - Matthew 5:5
Once we see our need for God and we mourn partly in joy for his undeserved love, we become meek, obedient, calmed, gentle. The realization that we're forgiven and we have a share in God's kingdom makes us meek. An instant inner peace just settles in our very hearts and minds that can't be taken away. We begin seeing things differently, reacting differently, acting differently. As I once heard... " we no longer tell God how big our problems are, but we begin telling our problems just how big God is."
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Step #4: We Thirst for Righteousness
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." - Matthew 5:6
Now we know we need God, we've mourned for our sins and His love, we've become meek... now we want more. We want to fill our very cores with that peace and righteousness that only comes from God. Now we want to study more, listen to God's word more, grow in Him, and fulfill that for which we were created... the good news is, Jesus promises that all those who seek Him and his righteousness will find it and be filled with it. Seeking for more is the next step in our christian journey, and here's the thing... this is a step in which we will always find ourselves.
As we discussed before, our christian journey is never ending. Once it starts, our thirst for Jesus and God never goes away but continues to yearn for more. We need to drink from the water that Jesus gives us which will satisfy us forever...
"Jesus answered, 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'" - John 4:13-14
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Step #5: We Become Merciful
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." - Matthew 5:7
We don't thirst for righteousness just for ourselves, but for other as well. When we being to search the righteousness of God, we want to share His underserving love and gifts with others. We want others to see Jesus through us and we yearn to follow His steps... we begin to be more compassionate for our earthly family, we become merciful. We want to share Jesus love with others and we want others to experience the same transformation as we have.
Jesus' life, if one was to summarize it in just a mere few words, would be "all giving and merciful". Jesus' life was all about giving. He gave us the news of God, gave us the gospel and news for salvation, gave himself in favor of others, lived to serve, healed, fed, shared... and eventually gave His life in our place so that we could be redeemed and saved by the grace of God. He's example is a clear life of mercy - and once we connect with Jesus, there's nothing we'll want more than to share that mercy spirit with others. We become merciful by His grace and love. Mercy, is that next step in our christian journey. There can't be mercy if we don't have love for our earthly family, and we can't have love if we don't have Jesus in us. the Bible says:
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing." - 1 Corinthians 13:1
...it also says...
"He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." - 1 John 4:8
As christians, if we don't sympathize and feel the pain others feel, if we don't feel the urge to live less for us and more for others... we, perhaps, are missing the whole picture... perhaps we're deceiving ourselves. Love and mercy are the next step in our christian journey.
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Step #6: We Cleanse Our Hearts
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." - Matthew 5:8
I believe this one is self-explanatory... right? Once we constantly look for that righteousness of God and seek to share the love and mercy Jesus showed us, our hearts become pure. Bit by bit our intentions become less and less about us, and more about others. All of a sudden things that used to matter to us no longer matters; money becomes just another 'thing' of life, careers become just a means to living... serving Jesus becomes our focus and our hearts are cleansed. Having pure hearts is the next step in our christian journey.
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Step #7: We Instill Peace
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." - Matthew 5:9
Without a doubt... a by-product of the previous steps, no? As we look for God's righteousness, we become merciful and our hearts are cleansed... obviously we want the peace that we have to be shared amongst us all. We want to help preserve the love and peace above all and perhaps serve as a conflict mediator with God at the center of our lives. Sharing our peace, being peacemakers is the next step in our journey as christians.
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Step #8: Rejoice in what seems to be bad...
"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." - Matthew 5:10-12
At the end of this beautiful journey as christians with Jesus, there's yet one more thing and final step that comes to show just how fruitful the journey has been... persecution. This can come in many ways, not necessarily the persecution in which you're literally persecuted, but it can come in the way of mockery, insults, and people just being rude towards one who wants to shine Jesus' light. See, when we go through the steps we've already discussed and we learn just how amazing the journey has been, we'll want to share the news! After all, that's what Jesus entrusted us with:
"And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.' Amen." - Matthew 28:18-20
Here's the thing, when sharing the news, the gospel, we need to share that we all have to start at the same place... recognizing that there are faults in us that only Jesus can cleanse, forgive, and delete from our records. The problem is that not everyone is willing to admit that they are in the wrong and need a Savior. Jesus knew this... which is why he said:
"Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword." - Matthew 10:34
Not because the gospel isn't peaceful and brings joyful news, but because embracing the gospel starts with us dropping our shields, often times letting go of all of our previous customs and traditions, and follow Jesus. Often times this 'sword' takes the form of a person who's family is from a religion or culture that don't accept christianity and the accepting of Jesus can lead to great strife in the family and even problems with government. This 'sword' takes the shape of leaving behind lifestyles that we know do not conform to God's standards; see, there are many ways in which this 'sword' show itself. When we come to Jesus we must realize that we need Him in order to fulfill our life's purpose, in order to be redeemed... and we MUST start by acknowledging that we're sinners and we NEED HIM. This might sound simple, but is not.
Once we, redeemed in Jesus Christ, begin sharing with others the gospel and God's righteousness, an unavoidable resistance and 'persecution' will rise. Being a christian basically my entire life I can say I've had my share of mockery and attacks to my person for my beliefs but hey, the Bible says that when people do that to me, I should rejoice... and guess what? I do and so should you! The reason we, as a group of christians in general, are not being persecuted, is because we're blending with the world. We like being with Jesus, but we also like the things this worlds offer and hey, I'm guilty of that myself; that's why we need to cling to Jesus and ask for a transformation that only He can give. Revive your love for the gospel, share the news, and you'll automatically see a revival of persecution and attack.
Conclusion
Jesus knew He needed to begin his masterpiece of a sermon by giving a spiritual compass, spiritually refreshing words to every single person on the audience listening, and to readers for centuries to come. He did. The christian journey with Jesus is a beautiful adventure that we all experience at different degrees and forms. And it is our duty to commit ourselves to build a relationship with Jesus, the Creator of heavens and earth, to live the spiritual growth that comes from it. Once you're in the "final" step of the journey, do not be discouraged by the persecution and/or mockery you'll likely face... that only means you're in the right path. Jesus was mocked, spat, slapped, whipped, ridiculed and eventually killed... all for you. Even if you would've been the only human He could've saved, He would've lived all that just for you. If people did it to our Savior, we can expect nothing less being done to us...
Finally, to be overemphatic, notice that I said "final" and not final (no quotation marks)... this is only because there's no such thing as a final step of the journey. A christian's journey is never ending and ever growing. Day by day we will become more aware of our condition, we will want more of God, we will be more merciful and loving to others, we will simply live and re-live each step but each time, stronger than the last one.
God Bless You and until next one!!
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