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Blessed Are Those Who Mourn (Matthew 5:4).


In our daily meditations, we are looking at what Jesus taught on the hillsides of Galilee—the sermon that’s commonly called The Sermon on the Mount. In yesterday’s meditation, we looked at Jesus saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” This poverty of spirit should cause us to mourn over every attitude within us that is not of Jesus Christ, e.g., like the sinful woman that wept over the feet of Jesus at Simon the Pharisee’s table (Luke 7:36-49). If we have indeed come to the place of pleading bankruptcy, then the next step upward is the emotional ingredient that will take us to mourn over everything within us that has displeased God. Get it all out. Unburden yourself of everything that weighs heavy upon you: “Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved” (Psalm 55:22). We should not rationalize why we did certain things but there should be a hatred of doing anything you know that was selfish and displeasing to God. Be open and vulnerable to the Lord; after all, He knows everything we have done, as well as our motives. Nothing is hidden from Him (Hebrews 4:13).

 

The Greek word translated as “mourn” is pentheo; it means grieving and having sorrow of heart, usually being moved to tears. Mourning is called blessed by God when it produces in us a change of heart, generally after we feel pain at what sin has caused, either to ourselves or others. The Lord feels our pain and sees our tears. When we are moved to tears by pain, God steps in to comfort us with the presence of the Comforter. The word comfort in verse 4 is the verbal form of parakletos, the name Jesus gave to the Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17). Different English translations of the original Greek word have Comforter (KJV), Counselor (NIV), Advocate (NEB), and Helper (ESV).

 

Paracletos is a difficult word to translate because it means one called alongside us. The Lord comes alongside us when we mourn. He feels what we feel, and He sympathizes with our weaknesses and feels our pain (Hebrews 4:15). When Jesus confronted Saul, who became the apostle Paul, on the Damascus Road, the Lord said to him, "Why are you persecuting me?" (Acts 9:4). Jesus Himself was not being persecuted but felt the pain of His people being persecuted by Saul. The pain we go through touches the heart of our God. Our tears are precious to God. Even when tears are not present, it is the attitude of the heart to which God responds. The Scripture says, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18.)

 

Another thing to mourn is the state of the world in disobedience to God and the evil things that surround us in this life. One has only to watch or listen to the news today to see such great suffering among humanity and God's creation. A true believer longs for the restoration of God’s creation. When we mourn over the state of this present world, we feel God's heart for humanity, and we look forward to the time when the Kingdom of God will be manifest. To mourn, we need an understanding of what sin does. It separates us from God. Sin tramples God’s laws and His ways and robs us of the joy of God’s presence.

 

It is common today for teachers and leaders in the church to only focus on the positive and downplay the need for mourning or being truly sorrowful, but if you are in touch with God’s heart, you will long for His ways to be demonstrated, and for others to be restored to a relationship with God. If this is not the case, ask God to soften your heart. If sin in your own life does not grieve you, ask God to soften your heart and reveal His heart to you afresh. On this side of heaven, we will never come to a place where we are not sorrowful over sin. In short, we can say that mourning is feeling sadness over loss and a longing for what we know is yet to be fulfilled. May God show us what it cost Him to cleanse us from sin and bring us the joy of His salvation. Keith Thomas

 

This meditation is from a more complete study found at the following link: The Beatitudes

The YouTube video is at the following link: https://youtu.be/9y-1KKJGLSo

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