Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Blessed are those who mourn...

This week in our "Life's Healing Choices" series the focus was on the Hope Choice.

The Hope Choice: Earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to Him, & that He has the power to help me change.

For some people, myself included, it's one thing for us to admit that we are powerless & that we need God's help; however, it's a completely other thing for us to actually "mourn" the problems we have and the brokenness that we experience.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." (Matthew 5:4 NIV)

In this verse, Jesus wasn't saying that the more funerals we go to, the more blessed we will be. He was talking about the fact that happy are those who mourn the faults they have, who recognize that they are sinners, and fall face first at the feet of Jesus begging for His forgiveness. Blessed are we who realize are brokenness because it's in that recognition that we experience the full level of God's comfort.

Sure, this isn't an easy thing to accomplish, but if we can strive each day to see who God really is, we will begin to see who we really are, and then we will begin to understand and see how God can change me. At the end of time we will ALL stand before God & at that time all that we have ever done, good or bad, will be known. There will be no pointing fingers from person to person because we will all be in the same boat, the boat that only made it safely to shore because Jesus Christ died for us.

One of the huge points I took away from yesterday is that Jesus Christ believes in ME. Yup, you read that right...He believes in ME! Of course the entire basis of Christianity is founded upon the idea that we all must believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that we are sinners, & that he died for those sins. However, God has chosen each one of us for a specific task & for Him to even consider choosing us means that somehow, even amidst all our sin, He believes that we can accomplish all that He has planned for us. He, the author of the universe, believes that I can do whatever He wants me to do for Him.

For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. (Phillippians 2:13 NLT)

5 comments:

Lindsey said...

I needed this today, thanks for sharing.

Jennifer Owens said...

I was curious what this week's sermon was about. (o:

I think that coming to sorrow over our own sin is what leads us to change. I love that song, "It's your kindness Lord that leads me to repentance." Just this morning I wrote something on my blog that wasn't spewing ugly things, but i could see the underlying other centered contempt in it and knew that I shouldnt' post it. It's repentance and God's constant changing in me that enabled me to see where my heart was really at and the times when I can just be ugly.

Once we can sorrow for our sin and the sins committed against us, not only can we experience just His comfort, but real healing and therefore lived out of restoration not our wounded hearts...

Already looking forward to next week's choice! (o:

Tara Gibson said...

wonderul post!!

Kathryn said...

Thank you for your sweet comment and support right now. :-)

Kelly Loy Gilbert said...

Thanks for this post. Those are really great reminders.