Continuing with our series: "True Biblical Prosperity as Revealed in the Beatitudes" ~

I know that it is true that we tend to turn to the LORD God with great intensity during our times of greatest need. We cry out to Him in pray. We seek others to pray with us, and we are open to the ministry that others can provide. We get into His Word, or we seek out those who can guide us into and through His Word to find that help we need in our present time(s) of trouble. Hear me now, please! It should not stop there. When we are not in a state of desperate need, we must learn that “True Biblical Prosperity” is to be found here in these short, pithy, powerful statements of our Lord and King. Look at the next couplet as we read verses 6 & 7:
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

We see here the dimensions of the cross! That vertical beam that connects us to our Father seated upon His heavenly throne is made sure when we choose to “go after” righteousness. You may remember that Jesus will exhort His disciples (that’s us, Beloved!) to seek first (before anything and everything else!) the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matt. 6:33a). If we do so, He promises us that all the other things of life that we need, those things that so often absorb and consume our attention and our affections, shall be added to us (33b)!

Note, however, that Jesus set the stage for us with the choice of His words. When we read the word “seek,” (6:33), we may not be impacted with the intensity of what the Master is wanting us to have in our searching Him out and making Him our first priority. Therefore, He paints the picture for us by using the words “hunger and thirst” in 5:6.

We must not wait until we are destitute. Rather, we are to choose to crave Him (His righteousness)! We must choose to be famished with hunger and “dying of thirst,” so to peak. The imagery we might want to use, by way of an analogy, to help us to get the import of the Mater’s message is this: In any sport or athletic competition or military conflict, the time to prepare is not the moment of the engagement ~ the sporting event, the match, or the battle. Muscles must be built up and conditioned, timing and reflexes must be honed to a razor-sharp lightning speed, knowledge and awareness of the opponents’ or the enemy’s tactics and strategies must be a part of our subconscious repertoire, and our confidence must be built to peak condition by constant real-life practice, sparring and war games with capable opponents. Only then will we be prepared to enter onto the field, into the arena or into the combat zone properly equipped for success. So, too, we must choose to hunger and thirst for righteousness in order that we may be equipped and prepared for the spiritual warfare that awaits us!

(to be continued . . . )

Below is the continuation from last week of "True Biblical Prosperity as Revealed in the Beatitudes:

. . . .

With this understanding in mind, let us begin to “open the treasure-chest” of the Beatitudes by seeing verses 3 and 4 as a “couplet,” a pair of parallel statements:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

This concept – those who are “poor” in spirit – is used four (4) times in the Hebrew Scriptures translated as the English word “contrite.” In three of these various forms of the word transliterated “da-kaw;” is used. Let us consider two of these from the Psalms of David:

Psalm 34:18 – (notice, once again, the couplet form)
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted
And saves those who are crushed in spirit.

Psalm 51:17 –
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
A broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

Is it any wonder that our Lord Jesus couples this image of the “poor in spirit” with “those who mourn?” When you and I have experienced situations and circumstances of life – be they financial, medical, relational, loss of our dreams, betrayal, times of abject failure, et.al. – we truly have known what it means to be “brokenhearted,” “crushed” or “broken” in spirit.

At this time we also become quite contrite – “sorrowful for some wrong that one has done; deeply repentant.” (Miriam-Webster). These are the times, times of pain and desperation, of the keenly felt need for God’s help, His extended Hand, His Love and Forgiveness, times when we come in total and abject honesty as we “mourn” and weep unashamedly before Him in the midst of our pain. These are the times when we lay aside all of our excuses and rationalizations, and we “come clean” before Him with humble and beseeching hearts – hearts crying out His forgiveness, for His deliverance, His healing, His restoration!

Praise God, our Father in His faithful Love responds to our cries. He comes to us and meets us in our time of need! Jesus tells us that we will be blessed with the Kingdom of heaven, and we will be comforted when we come to Him in such honest, searching humility. 1 John 1:9 tells us that “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” and1 Peter 5:6-7 gives us this promise: 6“Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time. 7casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”

. . . . to be continued