Pause

Finding the way to happiness is a lifelong pursuit. Happiness comes and goes, but the blessings of God always remain; they are ever-present.

Take time now to learn the pathway of blessedness that leads to the very presence of God, the source of all joy.

Listen

"Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets."

Luke 6:22-23

Think

We all want to be liked by other people. Look no further than our Facebook pages and you can see. We want people to like what we say, what we do, how we cut our hair, the clubs we join, the music we listen to, the pictures we post. We want people to see everything and click the magic button – “Like” – and we feel good about ourselves.

Do you ever think about how much we focus on being liked in the short term? What we put on Facebook is all but gone and forgotten tomorrow. It is temporary.

In these Beatitudes, Jesus is overturning everything we know about what it means to be happy. Today’s words may sound harsh, but what Jesus is asking us to do is to lay down our worries about being well-liked. Following Jesus will not always be easy. It will require us to speak hard truths and to hold to our convictions even though they are not always popular. But when we follow Jesus and place the Kingdom of God above all else, we find joy that is eternal.

Chris Hughes

Pray

Holy God, I know that sometimes I focus too much on being liked for things that are temporary. As you move in my life, help me to see what matters more. Help me to see that I am loved by you and called to live out the Kingdom of God, even if at times that is difficult. Amen.

Go

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.

Ephesians 1:3-4