The blessings of God are infinite and eternal.
The blessings of God are infinite and eternal because they are an infusion of the infinite and eternal love of God into our souls.
The saints are the saints because they came to understand this principle and to act on this principle. They are blessed because they said “yes” to the blessing our Heavenly Father offers all people everywhere in the ordinary events of life.
God is working his purpose out in our world. God is working His purpose out in the circumstance of our lives. God never promised to annul the folly of human sin. The world is structured according to the laws of choice, cause and effect, and consequence. God does not use magic to cancel the laws that he formed to govern the universe he created.
He does promise to transform sin back into virtue in the Real Presence of the living Lord Jesus Christ. He does promise that despite the bad things that happen in this world He is working to bring all things back to their original perfection.
How does this happen?
Jesus gives us some very profound and difficult teaching on the subject of blessing in his sermon on the mount. In this sermon, Jesus reveals to us the Great Mystery of salvation. That Great Mystery is counter intuitive to most if not all people.
Ponder for a moment the words Jesus uses to complete the statement “Blessed are.”
The people who gathered to hear him that day would have expected something very different. Based on their experience, their values and the way they had been taught to practice their religion they would have expected something like:
Blessed are the rich because God has rewarded them with an abundance of money.
Blessed are the happy because God has rewarded them with pleasure.
Blessed are the strong for God has rewarded them with the power to dominate other people.
Blessed are those who know they are righteous for God has rewarded them with positions of importance.
Blessed are those who condemn the unrighteous for God hates those who they hate.
Blessed are those who refuse to compromise for God rewards their narrow minded dedication to ideological purity.
Blessed are those who conquer and destroy their enemies for God gives victory over the unrighteous.
Blessed are the righteous bullies who impose their will on the weak and foolish for God rewards their perfection by helping them dominate other people.
These are the “beatitudes” those lost in separation from God expect and seek. They are grounded in the will to power of the sin nature.
The blessing of God reaches out to the lost, lonely and broken souls of our world with a very different message. You are most blessed when you are most vulnerable. You are most blessed when you recognize your need, your poverty, your hunger and thirst for meaning and purpose… for God.
The righteous are not those who stand before God filled with pride of accomplishment. The blessed are not those who manage to accumulate wealth, power and position.
The righteous are those who hear the invitation of God to enter into a personal relationship with Him in Jesus Christ. The blessed are those who hear and believe the words of Jesus when he says: I am with you always.
The Blessing of God is the Real Presence of God in Jesus Christ.
God does not bring poverty and suffering into our life. We do that both individually and as a species when we chose to violate the triune law of Love and bring forth those choices into the world of cause and effect.
Jesus perfectly fulfills the triune Law of Love within the context of the laws of choice, cause and effect and consequence. Jesus is the answer to the question so many people ask from time to time in the midst of tragedy: where was God?
Jesus is the Real Presence of God to the poor, the mournful, the meek, the hungry. Jesus is the Real Presence of God to those who embrace the blessing of God and become the blessing of God as the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers.
Jesus invites all people to receive the blessing of His Real Presence, to live the blessing, and then to become the blessing. More often than not, we reach for the blessing in a moment of pain and in a moment of need. It is then the Holy Spirit can reach past the distractions of our possessions and pleasures to show us our true spiritual state and our prodound spiritual need.
No one is born a Christian. We are made Christians by a choice. No one is born a saint. We make choices that open our minds and hearts and wills to receive God’s blessing. It is as we make that choice to value the blessing God offers that we experience the transforming power of the Holy Spirit to live from the place of blessing.
Where is your greatest need today? Where is your sorrow? Where is your pain? It is there that our Heavenly Father sends the Holy Spirit to offer you the blessing of personal transformation in the Real Presence of the Living Lord Jesus Christ.
The purpose of God’s blessing is three fold. God wants to reunite you to the eternal life of the Holy Trinity. God wants you to experience the joy and wonder of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in your daily life here and now. God wants you to be a blessing of love and compassion to other people.
The saints were those who made a choice to reject the demands of the sin nature and to receive the blessings our Heavenly Father offers all people everywhere in all the circumstances of our lives. They weren’t perfect. They simply met God where God offered to meet them. They met God in both the pleasures and the pain of this life. They yielded self will to divine will in a moment of grace.
The saints lived the words Jesus spoke to the crowds and speaks to us today: blessed are you.
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