A Brief Thought and a Prayer

 

I have been studying the Sermon on the Mount in my quiet times over the last month. In the Beatitudes, as we all know, Christ spoke of the one who is blessed. This completely turned the thinking of his audience on its head. Doesn’t blessing look like riches, joy, confidence, and strength? Yet this is not what Jesus described. 

Are we too looking for blessing in the wrong places? Has 2020 revealed to us that we perhaps also at times have a wrong view of the blessed life?  In our challenges of this year, have we felt less than blessed by God? Do we view our blessings primarily on such issues as being healthy, having the freedom to come and go as we please and keep up our weekly activities, maintaining a secure job, having the “right” President in place, being spared from devastating storms and life circumstances, and keeping our religious freedoms? None of these are on Christ’s list of the one who is blessed. 

The blessed life that Christ describes has nothing to do with circumstances, but has everything to do with character: being poor in spirit, mourning over sin, showing meekness, hungering for the things of God, extending mercy, being a peacemaker, and enduring persecution for Christ’s sake (Matt. 5:1-12). Have you experienced these? You are blessed. Cultivate these, and you will be blessed, whether 2021 looks a lot like 2020 or not.

        Read this Puritan prayer and see the longing for a right view of the blessed life in the middle of a valley. May this be our prayer as we finish out a challenging year.

 

The Valley of Vision

Lord, High and Holy, Meek and Lowly,

Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,

where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;

hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.

 

Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up,

that to be low is to be high,

that the broken heart is the healed heart,

that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,

that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,

that to have nothing is to possess all,

that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,

that to give is to receive,

that the valley is the place of vision.

 

Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,

and the deeper the wells the brighter the stars shine;

 

Let me find thy light in my darkness,

thy life in my death,

thy joy in my sorrow,

thy grace in my sin,

thy riches in my poverty,

thy glory in my valley.

 

-- Amy O.