When I was as a high school student I longed for the day when I had money of my own. I came from a poor family, but to be truthful, I did not seem to lack too much. Nevertheless, my mind was often occupied with the thought of living the good life and enjoying it to the full. It seemed to me that you needed resources to do this and, in particular, money! The good life for me was getting married, playing football, having a sporty car, holidaying, buying a nice house and eating well. As it turned out, I achieved all these things in a matter of a few years! Yet, when I lived this so called ‘good life’ something seemed to be missing!
It wasn’t until Jesus became Lord of my life that I saw life very differently and my life really changed. Jesus and His teachings now mattered to me. I started to try and base my life on pleasing Him. I must confess there were many challenges in doing this! I realized that the foundations I had built my life on were somewhat shaky. They did not live up to all they claimed to deliver! I needed new foundations to build my life on.
The foundations for the good life are certainly starting to take shape for us as we pursue this new series in ‘Connecting Sundays to Mondays’ based on Jesus’ Beatitudes. We now have four key foundations in place viz. poverty of spirit when it comes to our sinful state; mourning this sin; meekness when it comes to others and a thirst and hunger for righteousness. Today we add another three – mercy, purity and peace. I have been greatly blessed in recent weeks reading a book called ‘The Last Jew in Rotterdam’. I have learned ever so much from humble Dutch Christians in how these three beatitudes impacted their lives. What a difference they made to the lives of persecuted Jews as they lived out mercy, purity of heart and became genuine peacemakers!
I hope that you are greatly challenged to add pursue mercy, purity and peace as foundations of your life. If you do you will be shown mercy; will see God and will be called sons of God!