Matthew 5:3
God blesses those who realise their need for him, for the kingdom of heaven is given to them.
In the last few days I had been doing a little bit of preparation using one of the verses towards the end of Matthew Chapter 6 and it rekindled my interest in the famous sermon on the mount delivered by our Lord Jesus.
The sermon in Chapter 5 begins with the beatitudes and today’s passage features the very first one. In the older versions of the bible, this verse appears as ‘blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ but I find the version in my New Living Translation more understandable.
I’m absolutely sure we’ve all been in the position where a situation has arisen in our lives where we don’t know how we’re going to deal with it or don’t know how we are possibly going to cope.
We see new housing developments appearing everywhere and as soon as the houses are ready, they seem to sell really quickly. It makes me wonder how some of these young buyers have coped with the rises in interest rates over the last few years along with the costs of gas, electricity, food and petrol/diesel. When some of the young couples that have eventually got on to the housing ladder for the first time are budgeting, I’m speculating that there will be more than a few who are being financially stretched to the very limit and feeling the resultant stress when it comes to retaining their house and meeting their regular financial commitments.
I learned of someone I know a little bit that had recently lost her husband who passed away at home suddenly at the age of 43 leaving her with two young children to bring up on her own and a house that they no longer wanted to live in.
Some parents go the extra mile when supporting their children through university digging deep into their savings to give their offspring the best chance in life. This doesn’t always work out as planned. Sometimes exams are failed, the course selected doesn’t measure up to expectations, the student decides they’ve had enough of further education or mum and dad’s savings run out and there seems no way of completing the course and gaining a qualification.
I could have included so many more examples but when we get to the situation when we don’t know what to do, we don’t know who or what to turn to, we, as believers, are blessed and favoured to have God in our lives through Christ Jesus and his Holy Spirit. It means we really do have someone to turn to no matter when, no matter the time of day or night and no matter what the problem is as long as we continue to aspire to be part of God’s Kingdom. This is a blessing that money can’t buy.
Prayer - Oh Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth! You are our refuge and our strength. You are our light in the darkness, our helper when we are poor in spirit and needy of heart. We know we can depend on you to be our sure defence against whatever the world throws at us. Please do not delay in coming to our aid. Our hearts can be overwhelmed, our mind filled with restless, fearful thoughts. We ask you to hear our deepest thoughts and help us to resist all that attempts to separate us from your love and help us to run into your arms where we are safe and secure. Amen
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