Tuesday, June 15

Hear my prayer, O Lord, let my cry for help come to you. Do not hide your face from me when I am in distress. Turn your ear to me; when I call, answer me quickly. Psalm 102:1

As you begin your time today, thank God for always being willing to meet with you and to hear you when you call upon him for help.


Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Matthew 5:3, 5


Imagine walking into a large store – say Macy’s in Chicago – and finding diamond earrings for sale for $1.99 and dishtowels for $2,999.00!

Imagine going to an auto-dealer and finding a 2011 Lexus listed for $999 while a 1995 Volkswagen Rabbit is marked at $59,900!

You would either think the world had gone mad – or that this was your lucky day!

Jesus is teaching us here that the blessing of God is profoundly counter-intuitive, even counter-cultural! He is saying that God has turned our most common notions of blessing upside-down and inside-out.

In our culture, we tend to think of “blessings” as the material blessings associated with our standard of living; our homes, our access to abundant food, and our financial resources. We tend to think of the “blessing” of personal good fortune; being born into a good family or living in a free society. But when Jesus speaks of the blessing of God he doesn’t mention any of these things. He speaks instead of the poor in spirit and the meek. Why?

Jesus is redefining blessing in terms of the Kingdom of God rather than the kingdom of men. The blessings of our affluence, our lifestyle, and our culture, while certainly good and worthy of appreciation, are superficial and temporary. They are ours at the whim of history and governments. At times they can even be that which distracts our souls from our God. The Kingdom of God, on the other hand, is that which is eternal and unchanging. The poor in spirit are always blessed because they are desperate for God. The meek (those who understand their strength and confidence are in God and therefore do not have to use anger or power to control or intimidate others) are always blessed because their character is built on God’s promises and not the promises of man.

In what ways have you bought into our cultural definition of blessing? How might Jesus want to turn your understanding of blessing upside-down? Is your happiness more attached to the things you have than to God himself?

Ask God to help you anchor your security and joy more in who you are through your relationship with Him rather than in the material blessings that you possess.

Brian Coffey