The Beatitudes

I started something with The Beatitudes a few months ago. Like always, why not share it with my blog family?

 

Matthew 5:3 “God blesses those who realize their need for Him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.”

 

 

God does a work that only He can do when we realize all we have is His. And that we have nothing without His allowing us to have something.

 

It seems hard to believe that the Kingdom of Heaven, God’s domain, is mine, if I just acknowledge that I owe it all to Him. But, pride gets in the way a lot. We actually have a tougher time than we like to admit to. That when we have to say and believe we are nothing, it pulls and tugs us to want to believe otherwise.

 

But, Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction and haughtiness before a fall.”

 

As I die to self daily, this begins to feel even more like a no brainer than before. Simply because it is.

 

Pride=Destruction

 

Acknowledging my nothingness and need for God=Eternity in Heaven.

 

There’s no debate there.

 

A lot of times we can sum things up in three words.

 

Heaven or Hell?

 

Is your pride and independence from God worth a lifetime and eternity from Him?

 

Not. Hardly.

Nothingness

I wish I could quickly see even more of my life’s situations that are useless as quickly as I see one right now. Sometimes we get so worked up over something that is so useless that it shouldn’t invoke any type of emotion or reaction out of us. To allow ourselves to even put our precious time towards such nothingness is foolishness at best.

 

The more I deal with those things the more I laugh at myself.

 

I used to love to argue and looking back on it, what was it for? For nothing! Even if I “won” what was the reward? Satisfaction of being right? Even if I was wrong I still felt right, so that couldn’t have been it. And truth be told, that’s how it goes for a lot of people.

 

But you know what, my grandma passed a year ago and now I see nothingness much more clearly.

 

It rears its ugly head as soon as I decide to focus on all that is so much more important. And every now and then when it has me set in its sights, I realize there are so many more important things to use my precious energy and time towards.

 

Racial barriers weren’t broken by focusing on nothingness. Sexually discriminate laws weren’t ended by being dedicated to nothingness. And my grandma certainly didn’t pass with the desire that I spend my time enveloped in nothingness. In her words, “don’t waste time on foolishness and folly.”

 

I want to be happy in life. And I want to be happy knowing I spent time doing things that were an accomplishment and not just some thing. There is a reason a fruit of the spirit is joy. Because there is supposed to be an overwhelming happiness in the meaningful things we do.

 

Whether you choose to believe it, without GOD you increase the nothingness in your life. So for that reason, I give you the wise words of Solomon.

 

Ecclesiastes 3:12 So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can.

 

As for me, I’m enjoying myself! I have officially learned that I don’t have time for foolishness and I don’t have time to make time for it either.