🎯 Key Insight
The word "blessed" (Greek: makarios) means more than happy—it describes the divine favor and inner joy that comes from a right relationship with God. These blessings describe the character, not just the circumstances, of those in God's kingdom.
✍️ Practical Applications
- Poor in spirit: Recognize your spiritual bankruptcy before God; come to Him with humility, not pride
- Mourning: Grieve over sin (yours and the world's); don't become calloused to evil
- Meek: Exercise power under control; be gentle with others while firm in truth
- Hunger/thirst: Desire righteousness as desperately as food and water
- Merciful: Show compassion to those who don't deserve it—as God has to you
- Pure in heart: Guard your inner life; pursue integrity in thought and motive
- Peacemakers: Actively work to reconcile people to God and to each other
- Persecuted: Expect opposition when you live for Christ; rejoice that you're counted worthy
🤔 Reflection Questions
- Which beatitude is most challenging for you personally? Why?
- How do these blessings contradict what the world considers "blessed"?
- Notice that both the first and eighth beatitude have the same promise ("theirs is the kingdom"). What might this structure suggest?