Good morning. When we read the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:2-12), those “blessed attitudes” that are given to us by Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount, we see that many of those statements of truth are surprising. In fact, some seem almost like oxymorons: “The meek are the most powerful, and the hungriest person will be the most satisfied.”
To me, one of the more intriguing of these truths which Jesus shares with us is, “Blessed are those who mourn,”. It is hard to imagine feeling “blessed” when we have cause to express grief through mourning. Jesus continues the sentence, “for they shall be comforted.”
The question for our thought today is: what would be the nature of our cause for mourning that would bring us to recognize it as an opportunity for blessing?
While God cares for us whenever we are hurting, and mourning a loss is always worthy of His care, the reason for mourning that Jesus is referring to in this beatitude is a righteous reaction to personal sin. Jesus tells us that when we sin, and we know we have sinned, and we genuinely feel loss and therefore grieve because of our failure, God will be with us.
Not only will God’s presence be with us through the process of grief, but He will turn that grief into joy. As we feel the power of forgiveness and the freedom of having our sins lifted away, we are blessed. This is the promise of God made certain through the Words of Jesus Christ.
Bring your failures to the Lord. Let Him immediately take them from your shoulders and replace them with the blessings of God.
Enjoy a wonderful and incredibly blessed day in the Lord.
Vern