Today’s #BattleDrill: This week we explore what it means to be truly happy. Often, the so-called Beatitudes at the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount are seen as the demands of the Kingdom. In other words, be poor in spirit, be mournful, be humble, and so on, and God will be pleased with you and allow you to enter his Kingdom. But the Beatitudes are more like words of grace. The word often translated as “Blessed” in this passage can be better translated as, “Oh, how happy.” Jesus is saying those who are made happy by God realise their need for him, are comforted by him and will inherit the earth, and so on. So this week we focus on what it looks like to be made happy by God. #salvationarmy #basingstoke #devotional
Read Matthew 5:1-12. Many of us have to deal with tragedy at some point in our lives, whether it’s the loss of a job or career, possessions (such as in a house fire) or the loss of loved ones. There are times at the moment when we feel surrounded by tragedy.
When we do, we can feel very many strong emotions. Grief, anger, loss of purpose or motivation, fear, depression, anxiety and sometimes even guilt. If we don’t deal with powerful emotions like this, then they can take a very long time to recover from. I’ve known people who have never truly dealt with their emotional response to a tragedy in their life and are still suffering the effects over 20 years later.
Being happy doesn’t mean walking around with a smile plastered on your face. That would be weird if you’d just suffered a tragedy! It’s OK to grieve, even as a Christian. Jesus tells us that God can make people who are mourning happy because he will comfort them. When we are mourning we can cry out to him – we can shout at him if needs be – and he will listen. As he listens, we begin to release our grief and other strong emotions, and our healing begins.
THINK IT OVER
Think about the following:
oHave you struggled with grief or other strong emotions? How do you think that has affected you?
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