Essay 71 - The Sermon on The Mount

You’re blessed when you are at the end of your rope. With less of you, there is more of God and His rule.

When your heart breaks, you will be comforted.

If you’re humble, everything around you will be yours.

You are blessed when you want the right thing. God is the most you could ever imagine.

When you show mercy, you get mercy.

If your heart is right, you will see God.

Try to make peace; God takes great pleasure in that effort.

If you get the shaft because you are doing right… take heart; greater things will come in Heaven.

You will see good blessings too when they try to harm you for having faith in me. Take pleasure and laugh; you are in good company. All people who suggest non-conforming ideas run into the same treatment.

You are the salt of the earth, but if you lose your saltiness, how can the world taste the good flavor? It isn't worth much then, and it is better not to be used.

I’ll put it to you this way: You are the light of the world. If there is a city on a hill, you can’t possibly hide it. The whole city sticks out. Neither would you light a lamp and stick it in a cupboard. You put it out where it does some good. Your house needs light, doesn't it? So does the world. God’s colors need to stand out! Let your light be seen so that others can see God’s colors too.

When you pray, don’t be stupid about it. If you want to pray so that people see you, that’s your deal. Standing on the streets or in the synagogues doesn't do anything for God, but for your own self glorification. Instead, go into a room, close the door, and pray to God who will meet you there. And when you say these prayers, don’t just say things you don’t mean. That does nothing but let you hear your own words. Don’t you think God knows what you need? If you believe that, pray something like this:

“God in Heaven,

You are holy—I am not.

Your world come quickly—and what you want to be done here as it is in heaven, please make it happen.

Give us what we must have to survive, and forgive our hearts that damage others, as you have repaired our hearts for yourself.

Deliver us from all that is evil, evildoing and evildoers. You have everything in control. And we are thankful we do not have to.”

Don’t put all your hope and stock in this place where rust and life can destroy it. Instead, lay up your hope in God, where it is safe. If your hope is there, your heart will be there as well. So, if that is the case, don’t worry so much about your life. What you are going to eat, or what you will drink. Don’t worry about your body and what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and clothing? Look at the birds as your example. They don't hoard away stuff from the Stuffmart in their nests. Aren't you more important than the birds? If God has their back, don’t you think He has yours, too?

Have any of you ever grown taller because you worried? No? So, why worry? Look at the flowers—they don’t worry, and yet nothing on earth is as beautiful. They know their place in the story. If God chooses such incredible clothing for something so simple, how much more will He clothe you—the love of His creation.

So, all you have to do is seek God and His Kingdom. Be righteous in your dealings with others so that you can show them the love God already has for them. And the whole blessings of this life and heaven will be given to you. Don’t worry about tomorrow—tomorrow always worries about itself.

When you aren't consumed with worry, you can ask and God will give it. If you look for Him, you will find all you ever need. If you knock, the door will open. If you ask, you will receive. If you seek, you will find. Who of you, if your child asks for bread, decides to give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for fish, gives them a rock instead? If you know yourself, and you know how even you, in all your struggles, treat your children well, how much more can God offer in His justice and goodness? He always does good things.

I don’t say these things for you to file them away simply as “good information.” This is a way of life. If you listen and act upon them, you are like a wise man who built his house on a rock. Trials come, and still, your house is safe. On the other hand, if you let these words come in one ear and go out the other, you are like the foolish man who decides it would be better to build his home on the sand. When trials come, guess who gets washed up? Root these things in your life, and you will have the wiser heart.

From Careless In The Care of God by Aaron Everitt