“Blessed are the poor in spirit … those who mourn … the meek … those who hunger and thirst for righteousness … the merciful … the pure in heart … the peacemakers … [and] those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3-10)
There is nothing more wonderful than God’s blessing: the state of happiness and well-being you enter when God bestows His favor upon you.
God blessed humanity when He first created us and assigned us stewardship of the earth. (Genesis 1:22, 28, 2:8) After sin separated us from God and His blessings, God blessed Abraham as the man through whom God would bless a nation and ultimately all nations. (Genesis 12:2-3, 22:17-18) This ultimate blessing is, of course, Jesus Christ, through whom we receive every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 1:2-6)
The blessing of our eternal heavenly reward as Christians cannot be surpassed. (Matthew 25:34, 46; Revelation 21:1-7) But there are also blessings God wants to bestow upon us while we walk this earth. For the Hebrew people under the old covenant of the law, those blessings came through careful obedience of all God’s commandments. (Deuteronomy 28:1-14) But Jesus brought a new covenant to us with a new path to blessing that He describes in the opening remarks of His first sermon. We call these opening remarks the Beatitudes. (Matthew 5:2-12)
I want a life blessed by God. Even more important, I want those blessings for my family, my community, my nation, and the Body of Christ. And I want those blessings for our leadership because biblical history makes it clear a people will not be blessed if their leadership is not blessed. (Proverbs 29:2, 12; 2 Kings 21:2, 9-12)
Jesus speaks to the condition of our hearts, not just efforts to obey, when He reveals the path to divine blessing:
Step #1: Understand that without God, you are spiritually destitute. Self-reliance, self-centeredness, self-indulgence, and self-righteousness are all paths to disaster. (Matthew 16:24) A life dependent on the Lord and led by His Word experiences the kingdom of God on earth: righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Romans 14:17)
Step #2: Grieve for the sin and brokenness in the world and the sin and brokenness in your own life. (2 Corinthians 7:10-11) God will then comfort you with the revelation He is working to make things better and has a role for you to play in His plan. Failure to care about others and failure to see or be concerned about your own sin are both paths to disaster. (1 John 3:17; Revelation 3:15-17)
Step #3: Be meek, humble, gentle, and kind. These are the traits of the two strongest leaders of all time: Jesus and Moses, and if you follow their example, you will join them in the inheritance of the earth. (Matthew 11:29, 21:4-5; Numbers 12:3; Romans 8:17) God despises arrogance, hardheartedness, and cruelty, and warns us to avoid such people (2 Timothy 3:2-5; Proverbs 8:13, 11:17, 16:18; 1 Peter 5:5; Ephesians 4:29-32)
Step #4: Passionately desire to live a righteous life – right relationship with both God and others. (Romans 12:11) When righteousness is your first priority, God transforms your heart, begins to fill you with His righteousness, and in the process, also meets your other needs. (Matthew 6:33; 2 Corinthians 3:17-18) Remember that the foundation of righteousness is unconditional love of God and everyone God loves. (1 John 4:7-12)
Step #5: To receive God’s mercy, be merciful toward others, treating them as you wish to be treated and forgiving them in the same way you want God to forgive you. (Matthew 6:12-15, 7:12) We reap what we sow, and God judges us according to the way we judge others. (Matthew 7:1-5) Woe unto the Christians today who forget this divine principle. (Luke 6:24-26; Matthew 23:13-28)
Step #6: Keep your heart pure, always making your relationship with God your most important relationship and repenting of sin whenever God makes you aware of it. (Jeremiah 29:13; Luke 14:25-33; 1 John 1:9; Proverbs 28:13) If you do this, you will experience God’s presence and see Him at work in the world around you. (John 5:19-20)
Step #7: Be a peacemaker, not a person who sows discord, distrust, or dissension. (Galatians 5:19-20) God is love and God’s Son Jesus is the Prince of Peace. (1 John 4:8; Isaiah 9:6) As a peacemaker, you reveal to others that you are God’s son or daughter as well.
Step #8: Be neither surprised nor discouraged when your godly heart and life attract not only divine blessings but attacks from the devil and people deceived by the devil. We live in a warzone on earth, and we overcome evil with good. (Ephesians 6:10-20; Romans 12:21)
If we walk this path of blessing together, and choose leaders who walk this path, God will bless us all. This is my prayer.