As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:57-62)
My wife was just reminding me a few days ago about what happened the first time I was going to teach through the Beatitudes in our home church ministry. We were in a series through Matthew that brought us to chapter 5. I initially thought I could do a summary of the eight Beatitudes in one message.
However, as I was meditating on them leading up to that particular Sunday, the things I was learning about what it looks like to be blessed by God surprised me. What I had once thought was a “to do” list for believers turned out to be a “God is doing” list for the kingdom of heaven.
This was so mind-changing that I knew there was no way I could make do with an eight-point summary. I had to lead our church through these one at a time so we could be transformed by the mind-renewal God had given us (Romans 12:1-2).
The next big surprise was that, when I announced my change of plans from one message to eight, people voiced their despair that I was going to take that much time to look at these qualities. As one man said, “You’re taking the highest standards of the kingdom of God and you’re going to take eight weeks to tell people who already feel like crap about our walk with God all the things we are failing at?!”
I couldn’t help smiling at how God had prepared me that week with a far different view from what we had been taught. For the next two months, we had a very uplifting time of considering NOT what were these “highest standards” of what God required OF us, but what were the marks of GOD’S blessing when HE was working IN us.
In other words, the Beatitudes do not list eight things we are to do to be blessed. Rather, they show us eight of the qualities we will find happening in our lives when God is blessing us. For what I now call the “downside” of the Beatitudinal Valley, we don’t try to be poor in spirit so God will bless us; God is blessing us with the “poor in spirit” experience so he can give us his kingdom. We don’t try to mourn so God will bless us; we accept that God is blessing us when we find ourselves mourning whatever is wrong between us and him because he wants to comfort us beyond our comprehension. We don’t try to attain meekness; we accept God’s work of blessing us with the meekness that admits we can’t fix ourselves and so we surrender to Jesus’ authority to save us, heal us, fix us, and transform us. And we don’t try to make ourselves hunger and thirst for righteousness so God can bless us; we acknowledge we are being blessed when we feel starving for the righteousness we do not have because we know God will satisfy that longing.
The same is with the other four qualities that describe the “upside” of the Beatitudinal Valley. We don’t try to be merciful so God will bless us; we agree that we are being blessed (and have been blessed) when we see how God is leading us to be merciful towards others as he has been merciful towards us. We don’t try to earn God’s blessing by purifying our hearts; we rest in God’s blessing as we join his work of purifying us from the inside out. We don’t try to make ourselves peacemakers so we can earn God’s blessing; we receive God’s blessing of turning us into his peacemakers who want nothing more than to see other people experience peace with God. And we don’t try to earn brownie points for good behavior when we are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, but we know we are being blessed by God when our walk with Jesus Christ receives the same hatred as he did when he was here.
I share all that because today I needed to be reminded that we can face the absolutely most painful, hopeless, discouragements, and those days when feelings can’t even be described in words, and know that “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).
Two other Scriptures I really need to review so often are,
For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” (Isaiah 57:15)
“All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” (Isaiah 66:2).
Today I’m being honest with God about things in me I can’t even explain. I’m trembling at his word that speaks of the exact things I am feeling and facing with such a gracious invitation to “draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8). And I’m going out on a prayer walk along a favorite trail that will help me experience the blessings of the Beatitudinal Valley God has set before me today.
And even though I don’t know all the specifics that await, I do know that humbling myself under the mighty hand of God today will lead to him lifting me up in due time however he decides is the most blessed way of doing so.
© 2025 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)
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