Daily Devotion

 

 

Luke's "Sermon on the Plain" and Matthew's "Sermon on the Mount" (Matthew 5-7) closely correspond. Both start with a series of beatitudes. There are differences between the versions of Matthew and Luke, but one thing is clear they are a series of bombshells. It may well be that we have read them so often that we have forgotten how revolutionary they are. Each one is a challenge.

 

It has been said, "They are spoken in an electric atmosphere. They are not quite stars, but flashes of lightning followed by a thunder of surprise and amazement." They take the accepted standards and turn them upside down. The people that Jesus called happy, the world would call pitiful; the people Jesus would call pitiful the world would call happy. Just imagine anyone saying, "Happy are the poor, and woe to the rich!"

 

Where then is the key to this? It comes in verse 24. There Jesus says, "Woe to you who are rich because you have all the comfort you are going to get." The word Jesus uses for "have" is the word used for receiving payment in full of account. So, Jesus is saying, "If you set your heart and use all your energies to get the things that the world values, you will get them-but that is all you will ever get." But if on the other hand you set your heart and use all your energies to be utterly loyal to God and true to Jesus, you will run into all kinds of trouble; you may, by the world's standards, look unhappy, but much of your payment is still to come, and it will be joy eternal. The challenge of the beatitudes is, "Will you be happy in the world's way, or in Jesus' way?

 

Life Application: The choices you make now determine what you will experience when Jesus comes! So, make wise choices - Jesus choices - now.

 

Praise/Prayer: Dear Father, I love you so much! I find it almost amusing that You allow us to choose what our future with You will be like. But then, You will judge our activities and they will determine what our future really will be like. Father, I want Heaven with You, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and all the others who have run the race and won. The world has so little to offer that it is not worth missing Heaven. Please forgive me for any wrong choices I have made. My desire is eternity with You. Amen!