Daily Devotional

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

“Blessed are the peacemakers,

  for they shall be called sons God.

The promise of sonship in the second half of the Matthew 5:9 points us to Matthew 5:43-45,“You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

Here, we must love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us if we would be sons of God. So probably Jesus thinks of peacemaking as all the acts of love by which we try to overcome the enmity between us and other people. And if we ask for specifics, he gives two examples.

In Matthew 5:47 Jesus gives the other specific example of peacemaking-love in this text: "If you salute (or greet) only your brethren, what more are you doing than others?" If there is a problem in one of your relationships, or if there is someone who opposes you, don't feed that grudge. Don't feed the animosity by ignoring and avoiding that person. That is the natural thing to do—just cross the street so that you don't have to greet them. But that is not the impulse of the Spirit of a peacemaking God, who sacrificed his Son to reconcile us to himself and to each other.

Peacemaking tries to build bridges to people. It does not want the animosity to remain. It wants forgiveness. It wants harmony. And so it tries to show what may be the only courtesy the enemy will tolerate, namely, a greeting. The peacemaker looks the enemy right in the eye and says, "Good morning, John." And he says it with a longing for peace in his heart, not with a phony gloss of politeness to cover his anger.

Prayer:

Lord, I pray that you would give me the strength to forgive others. I pray that you would give me the heart of a peacemaker, that I would not only forgive, but I actually pursue to rekindle those broken relationships.  Give me the strength to not just walk away from problems, but to face them, and do so in a way that is honoring to you. Lord, don’t ever let me be okay with broken relationships, may they always burden my heart. 

Daily Devotional

Monday, August 23, 2010

“Blessed are the peacemakers,

  for they shall be called sons God.

Jesus is telling us that if we call ourselves sons of God, then we should have the characteristics of our heavenly Father. We know from Scripture that our heavenly Father is a "God of peace" (Romans 16:20; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 13:20). We know that heaven is a world of peace (Luke 19:38). And most important of all, we know that God is a peacemaker!

"God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them" (2 Corinthians 5:19). He made peace by the blood of the cross (Colossians 1:20). Even though by nature we are rebels against God and have sinned against Him and deserve death, God has sacrificed his own Son and now declares mercy to any who will lay down their pride and selfishness and come home to faith.

By the sovereign work of God's grace rebel human beings are born again, and brought from rebellion to faith, and made into children of God. We were given a new nature, after the image of our heavenly Father (1 John 3:9). If he is a peacemaker, then his children, who have his nature, will be peacemakers too.

Prayer:

Lord, thank you for giving me a new nature. Please continue to mold me into someone more like you, Lord. I pray that I would become a peacemaker, and that my life would be honoring to you. 

Daily Devotional

Sunday, August 22, 2010

“Blessed are the peacemakers,

  for they shall be called sons God.

When Jesus says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God," he does not tell us how to become a son of God, but he does tell us that the sons of God are in fact peacemakers. People who are peacemakers will be recognized as the sons of God at the judgment and they will be called what they are and welcomed into the Father's house.

We can look to scripture to see how we can become sons of God, for example, John 1:12 and Galatians 3:26. John 1:12 says, "To all who received him (Jesus), who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God." And Galatians 3:26 says, "For in Christ we are all sons of God through faith." We become sons of God by trusting in Christ for our forgiveness and hope.

Prayer:

Lord, I love you so much and thank you for all that you have given me; I recognize that I deserve nothing but death, and yet you still have rained your blessings down onto me. I pray that you would give me an extra measure of your Spirit that I may have the heart of a peacemaker, so that I may be called your child. 

Daily Devotional

Saturday, August 21, 2010

“Blessed are the pure in heart,

  for they shall see God.

So, how Are the Two Bound Together? Jesus only gives us part of the answer here. It is a true part, but only part. He says that the pure will see God. That is, purity is a prerequisite for seeing God. The impure are neither granted admittance to his presence, nor are they awed by the glory of his holiness, nor are they comforted by his grace.

Jesus' point is the same as Hebrews 12:14, "Strive for . . . the holiness without which no one will see the Lord." In other words, blessed are the holy for they shall see God. There is a real purity and a real holiness which fits us to see the king of glory.

And of course that leads every sensitive soul to cry out with the words of Proverbs 20:9, "Who can say, 'I have made my heart clean; I am pure from my sin?'" And with the disciples: "Who then can be saved?"

Jesus' answer comes back just like it did to the disciples in Matthew 19:26—and this is the rest of the answer—"With men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible." In other words, God creates a purity for us and in us so that we can pursue purity. And by his grace we must seek that gift by praying with David, "Create in me a clean heart, O God" (Psalm 51:10). And we must look to Christ "who gave himself for us . . . to purify for himself a people" (Titus 3:14).

And the response of our hearts to God's act of creation and Christ's act of sacrifice is single-minded faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. As the Scripture says in Acts 15:9, "God made no distinction between us and them, but purified their hearts by faith." God is the one who purifies the heart, and the instrument with which he cleans it is faith.

Therefore, trust in the Lord with ALL your heart (Proverbs 3:5). Will this one thing. And you will see God.

Prayer:

Lord, with you all things are possible. I give you my life, and pray that you would renew my heart so that I may see you. Use me however you see fit, Lord.  

Daily Devotional

Friday, August 20, 2010

“Blessed are the pure in heart,

  for they shall see God.

So, let’s explore what it is to have a pure heart. Psalm 24:3-4 says, “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false, and does not swear deceitfully.” A pure heart is a heart that has nothing to do with falsehood. It is painstakingly truthful and free from deceitfulness. Deceit is what you do when you will two things, not one thing.

James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you men of double mind.”  James: 4:4 explains what it means to have a double mind, “Unfaithful creatures [literally: adulteresses]! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” So the double-minded man of verse 8 has his heart divided between the world and God, like a wife who has a husband and a boyfriend. Purity of heart on the other hand is to will one thing, namely, full and total allegiance to God.

Finally, Jesus, in Matthew 22:37 says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart.”

Purity of heart is to will one thing, namely, God's truth and God's value in everything we do. The aim of the pure heart is to align itself with the truth of God and magnify the worth of God. If you want to be pure in heart, pursue God with utter single-mindedness. Purity of heart is to will that one thing.

Prayer:

Lord, create in me a pure heart. I desire to be of one mind, completely concern with your will for my life, Lord. Help me to better love you with all of my heart. 

Daily Devotional

Thursday, August 19, 2010

“Blessed are the pure in heart,

  for they shall see God.

So, what does it mean to “see God”? First, to see God means to be admitted into His holy presence.  Second, seeing God means being awestruck by his amazing glory; to experience His holiness. After God confronted Job in the whirlwind, Job said, "I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

Today, all of our spiritual sight comes through His word or through or through his earthly work. But there will come a day when God himself will dwell among us. His glory will no longer be inferred from lightning and mountains and roaring seas and constellations of stars. Instead our experience of him will be direct. His glory will be the very light in which we move (Revelation 21:23) and the beauty of his holiness will be tasted directly like honey on the tongue.

Finally, seeing God means being comforted by his grace. The Pslams repeatedly cry out for God’s comfort, and that He would not hide His face.  Psalm 27 (verses 7-9) David says, “Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me! . . . Hide not thy face from me.”

"Be gracious to me!" This means that seeing the face of God is considered to be a sweet and comforting experience. If God shows his face, we are helped. If he turns his face away, we are dismayed.

So when Jesus promises the reward of "seeing God" there are at least these three things implied: we will be admitted to his presence, not just kept in the waiting room. We will be awestruck with a direct experience of his glory. And we will be helped and comforted by his grace.

Prayer:

Lord, be gracious to me! Thank you for providing a way for me to see you, Lord. 

Daily Devotional

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

“Blessed are the pure in heart,

  for they shall see God.

The first thing we must recognize is that God is concerned with our heart, and not just our outward actions. Matthew 23:25-26 says, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and rapacity. You blind Pharisee! First cleanse the inside of the cup and of the plate, that the outside also may be clean.”

Simply changing society doesn’t satisfy Jesus; he is concerned with changing the hearts of its inhabitants as illustrated in Matthew 5:27-28, “You have heard that it was said, "You shall not commit adultery." But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

The heart is who we really are on the inside, and although no one else can see it, God can. Who we are at the invisible level matters just as much to God as who we look like to everyone else on the outside. So, the heart is crucial to Christ, and who we are in the deepest recesses of our hearts is of utmost concern to Him. Christ came not to break us of some bad habits, but to radically alter the very fabric of who we are.

Prayer:

Lord, I confess the hidden evils of my heart. You are all too familiar with just how evil I am, and I ask that you would forgive me. I confess that even my good acts are done out of sinful motivations. Please create in me a new heart, Lord.