Blessed Are The . . .

Have you ever read the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3-11) and come away discouraged? I have. In these verses we are presented with a standard that is humanly impossible to live up to. And yet it seems to say that if I can do these things, then I will be blessed. If I can live this way, then I will be happy. But is this what it is really saying??

A couple of weeks ago I discovered the Greek word Makarios (3107). This word is most often translated “blessed”, and a few times “happy”. There are several different words translated “blessed”, but Zodhiates definition for this word really caught my attention . . .

“. . . that state of being marked by fullness from God. It indicates the state of the believer in Christ . . . said of one who becomes a partaker of God’s nature through faith in Christ. . . .The believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit because of Christ and as a result should be fully satisfied no matter the circumstances . . . equivalent to having God’s kingdom within ones heart . . . Makarios is the one who is in the world yet independent of the world. His satisfaction comes from God and not from favorable circumstances.”

I know that was a long definition, but WOW, isn’t it good?? It seems to me that this “blessed” person is a person that is sourced, or “powered” by God (instead of Dutch Brothers, haha.). They are FULL of Him and He is the “cause” of all they do. They aren’t living “for” Him – He is literally living through them! And it seems as though they could never have a bad day! So what does it look like when a person is sourced by God? The Beatitudes give us a good picture -

• Humble, lowly, poor in spirit *
• Sorrowful, sad, grieved
• Meek, mild, gentle
• Hungry and starved for, thirsty and desiring ardently, God and His standard
• Full of mercy
• Pure in heart, sincere, upright
• Brings peace to others, sharing the good news of the peace of God
• Persecuted and despised

What is their reward? What promises belong to them?

• The kingdom of God presently and actively in their heart
• The promise of consolation and comfort
• The promise that they will actively inherit the earth
• The promise that they will be filled, satisfied
• The promise of obtaining mercy, of all miseries being removed
• The promise of seeing with perception and understanding - of beholding God
• The promise of being called, named, regarded as, the sons of God

From other scriptures we see that they –

• Hear the word of God and keep it (Luke 11:28)
• Are actively and willingly giving (Acts 20:35)
• Are forgiven (Rom. 4:7)
• Persevere and endure temptation (James 1:12)
• Shall receive the crown of life (James 1:12)
• Are a doer, a performer, of the Word (James 1:25)
• Have the spirit of glory and of God resting on them (1 Peter 4:14)
• Are actively watching His return, and keeping their garments (Rev. 16:15)
• Are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb ** (Rev. 19:9)
• Take part in the first resurrection (Rev. 20:6)
• Shall be priests of God and of Christ, and reign with Him 1000 years (Rev. 20:6)
• Keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book (Rev. 22:7)
• Do His commands (Rev. 22:14)
• Have right to the tree of life and to enter in through the gates into the city (Rev. 22:14)

Well I don’t know about you, but this excites me! The Beatitudes are no longer a high standard that I need to live up to if I want to be happy and blessed. They are describing what I will look like if, moment by moment, I will surrender to Jesus in the same way that He surrendered to the Father. They describe what it looks like to be sourced by God. :0)

This is the kind of person I want to be!  . . . The kind of person that never has a bad day, and is completely satisfied in and through Christ. Oh Abba, may I be Yours . . . completely.

* If you read the King James Version you will notice that the word “are” is in italics. That means that it is not in the Greek; it was added for readability. But I think it changes the meaning of the verse. Could it really be saying that the blessed person (the person sourced by God) IS poor in spirit?

** Just like the previous note mentioned for the verses in Matt. 5, the word “are” is in italics, and in Rev. 20:6, the word “is” is also in italics. Could it be that these things are not a matter of “chance” as they sometimes appear to be? (“I hope I get to be a part of the millennium!”) But that they are the right and the privilege of those who have chosen to be sourced by God?