Who is Blessed?

One of the most impressive moments in Bible history is Jesus giving his "Sermon on the Mount."  Jesus proclaims to his followers the specifications of what it means to be blessed. 

But what does it mean to be blessed?

In the footnotes of Matthew 5:3a it say's that, "The Latin beatus is the basis of the English 'beatitude' meaning to 'be fortunate','to be happy', or 'to be blessed.' I think that we can all agree that being fortunate and happy are all things that we want in this short mortal life, but where does this happiness come from? How do we get it? These are all things that Jesus describes for us in his sermon. His preachings here give us a road map to becoming blessed. As blessed people we are a lot of things and have lots of responsibilities. As stated in chapter 5 of Matthew we are "the salt of the earth," and "the light of the world." Therefore we are required to maintain our savour and "let [our[ light so shine before men that they may see [our] good works..." 

I try my best to live the beatitudes in my life, some of the ones I focus on are, 

1. Blessed are the poor in spirit: Having a poor spirit is something that is required of all of us. Being humble in the face of the Lord is not something that always comes easy. The way I try to remember to stay poor in spirit is by reminding myself constantly that everything I have is because of the Lord, and everything I'm doing is in his name. 

2. Blessed are the meek: This is one that I really struggle with. It is hard for me not to show my talents and feel pride when they go noticed. What I try to do is recognize the talents and gifts the Lord has given me and use them to bless the lives of others. Instead of treating them like achievements to bask in, I treat them like tools to help me work towards greater goals. 

3. Blessed are the peacemakers: This is my favorite thing to do. The trick is to find the goodness in every situation and every person's point of view. When we can successfully find the good in every person, we can be the peacemaker and show the people who have a harder time seeing the positives where they can find them. 

When we act in the way that Jesus preached about in this sermon, we can become blessed. The happiness and the fortune, come from knowing that we are moving closer to inheriting our true prize.... being with Heavenly Father for all eternity.