Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Somehow,
as I was memorizing and repeating the blessings, this one would often get lost.
I would just skip it. But I quickly realized that if I truly wanted to take
part in the last blessings I must build the ones before into my life. I must
learn to be merciful, before I could experience what it means to have a pure heart,
before I could become a peace maker.
You
can learn enough to build a storage shed in a few hours, but if you want to
build a house, that is an entirely different matter. There is foundational work
that must be done and understood in order to get things done properly.
To
learn more fully how to be merciful I first had to learn some things about
1.
Being poor in spirit.
2.
How to mourn sincerely.
3.
What it means to be meek and how to be meek
4.
After the other three I was ready to begin
learning to hunger and thirst for righteousness.
On
the 26th day of this series I said the first blessing is the key to
everything. I still believe that. I must begin there every day, every moment.
Every
one of these blessings contains a partial description of Jesus the man. To be merciful
is something I cannot fake. It will be visible. It may only be in a look of
disapproval or scorn, or it may be in a tone of voice. But it will be visible.
The
first 4 blessings can possibly be faked pretty convincingly but to be merciful
is a line, it cannot be faked at all successfully. It must be built on the
first 4 blessings.
Tomorrow
we will begin looking at what might be the most frightening area so far.
Father
of mercy, thank you for your wonderful will for each of us. Thank you that you
want each one to be becoming more and more like Jesus each day. I need grace to
be faithful to the truth of your word, to be living these things and not just
writing and reading them. Then and only then will I bring glory to your name.
Amen!
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