Character: Our makeup, Our frame of mind, Our frame of spirit...
Beatitudes
The set of Character Traits deemed by our Father God as to the ways in which we should conduct our lives...
I've been studying the Beatitudes lately, and I'm gaining a better understanding of what these words mean and how I should be applying them. It's truly been a gift to be able to study who God planned for me to be, and learn how, why and where I stumble and fall backwards into the ways of my flesh, my mind, and the world.
I know, our lives are stressed and ever busy, frustrated, and even confused, and time spent with our Lord God often dwindles down to a mere morning or evening prayer. However, as I've stated in previous blog posts; God's ways, his expectations of us don't 'stick' if we aren't 'stuck' in God's Word! It's challenging because we're (physically) 'stuck' in the ( World ) and it weakens us. We become anesthetized to God's ways...
The Beatitudes are beautiful in their simplicity, yet complex in their application and delivery! Their complexity stems from these traits being so completely OPPOSITE of worldly traits. What brings me to a spiritual halt is the reminder that worldly traits only serve in the TEMPORARY; Kingdom traits provide for our ETERNITY! That's so powerful!!
The Beatitudes are our gifts, our blessings from our Lord. He loves us so much that he's created a blueprint for us, and all we have to do is learn develop these Godly traits and follow it! I know that's easier said than done; or is it really? :^ As humans and in the natural, we continue to seek out earthly happiness, pleasure, and peace. Adhering to the beatitudes doesn't promise those things in an earthly way, in fact, adapting Godly traits will set us apart from those in the world. The joy's we seek can be found in and only through our Lord and our Obedience to and blind Faith in him.
This narrow road that God desires us to follow will bring on a confidence IN God and not in OURSELVES, not from any circumstance that our world offers. This is a hard concept I know, and I struggle with it daily folks! :[] But who am I to question the infinite wisdom of our Lord God?? ...Even when we don’t understand what’s going on in our world...
When we’re feeling as if we can’t see a way through our world’s madness; it’s time we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen - our Lord, our eternity with him our finite future in the glory and ultimate Peace that only god can provide! Things we now see will eventually be gone, but the things we cannot see will be everlasting!
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, of famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
~Romans 8:35-36
Let’s remember, though it may not ‘feel’ like it, He is:
about you, above you, after you, amidst you, around you, among you, before you, behind you, beneath you, beside you, beyond you, by you, inside you, near you, and over you. He is everywhere, all the time. Always and forever, He is near us.
~You Version
I don’t know about you, but that fills me, uplifts me, gives me the power through Him to move through my circumstances, my fears, and my limited vision!!
The beatitudes are as important as the drinking of water for our sustenance and survival in a world where everything appears backwards and the complete opposite of God’s ways. As we watch the worse in humanity, let’s not forget to focus on the best of it too. It takes a more concentrated focus to realign our focus so that we can 'see' through all of Satan’s foolery, through wickedness both in high places- and throughout out world. If we forget to ‘see’ we will go ‘blind’ with fear, sadness, anger and depression. Let’s make that effort, take God’s hand and let him lead us through the darkness...