The Beatitudes – Part 5

Part 5 of 8 – A Bible Study on the Beatitudes in Matthew, Chapter 5

Blessed Are The Merciful, For They Shall Obtain Mercy

Welcome back! If you a new to this page, I encourage you to please go back to previous posts to begin the study on The Beatitudes – Parts 1, 2, 3 & 4 of 8, as they build upon each other.

As we continue to build up the house we offer unto the Lord, let us recap the order thus far.

1. Poor and contrite spirit – Making the decision to come before the Lord and follow Him by committing our lives to Him and serve no other God. Be baptized and repent from our old ways. (In other words, bending down to Jesus)

2. Mourn and be comforted – Confess our sins, acknowledge that we are wretched and wicked without Jesus and that He alone is the way, the truth and life. Invite the Holy Spirit to rule and reign over our heart, mind, and soul, and bring comfort to us.

3. Be Meek and inherit the earth – Be submissive to the Word of God and wait patiently upon Him. The Holy Spirit of Truth will lead you into revelation knowledge on what it means to walk in your spiritual dominion here on earth.

4. Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness and be filled – be honest and have moral principles, walk in integrity, justice, fairness, and give all the glory and honor to God. For it is He who judges the hearts of man. Desire to know Jesus more than things of this world and you will be filled with peace.

Now, what does it mean to be merciful and obtain mercy? If we are walking in the above order why would we need mercy?

The Hebrew meaning of the word Mercy is – (loving kindness, compassion to an offender).

The answer to the above questions can seem obvious to some and yet one of the biggest weaknesses in all believers is how we respond to those who come against us or offend us. The scoffers and mockers, those who do not believe as we do, or those who might be in spiritual captivity due to their own offenses. Let us not forget the reason why God sent his only begotten Son to die on the cross for us.

Throughout the Psalms you see the cries of David’s heart as he was in constant turmoil over those who come against him. He, himself, had fallen short in his fleshly state and yet remembered who His savior was. He acknowledged his short comings, but even David was so distraught at times that he crossed the line of wanting evil to come upon his offenders rather than leaving vengeance to the Lord.

2 Samuel 22 is a beautiful example of how Jesus will respond through this beatitude for those who put their hope and trust in Him. Let’s look at a few of the verses and you can read the chapter on your own.

2 Samuel 22:26-28

With the merciful, You will show yourself merciful; with a blameless man You will show yourself blameless; with the pure You will show yourself pure; and with the devious you will show yourself shrewd. You will save the humble people; but Your eyes are on the haughty, that You may bring them down.

David believed that God would deal with people according to their conduct, punishing the wicked and blessing the righteous. This is how we, too, should believe. Now, does this mean David was a perfect man, Nope! And neither are we. However, when our heart is for God, we can confess our sins and love our neighbors, as Jesus loves us, and we accept that His chastisement comes to those He loves, but His mercies endure forever.

Jesus spoke of the importance of forgiveness when He taught on the way to pray. Matthew 6 and Luke 11 is where you can find the Lord’s prayer.

Mark 11:25-26

“And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”

Matthew 18:21-22

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.”

Mic drop! Bam! Beloved, if we can’t get past this one, we can go no further. We can not deceive ourselves in this arena, because it is the leaven that spoils the whole batch. Pick up that mirror and take a good look in it. Who has hurt you? Who has offended you? Make your list. Now, make another list. Who have you hurt? Who have you offended? Yeah…that’s what I thought. We are all guilty. But fear not because God’s mercies endure forever for those who love him. There are over 100 scriptures about His mercies. It is important to Him and critical for us.

Romans 12:1-2

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Ephesians 2:4-5

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved

1 Peter 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Mercy is so important to God that he gave it the highest place in the tabernacle. It is called the Mercy Seat and it is the place where the Holy of Holy dwells. With us being His tabernacle, a dwelling place not made with hands, the Mercy seat would be in our heart, if we let it. He wants to dwell within our heart and our heart must be pure.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Amen.

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By Norma Umphress

October 2020

Personal Note:

Other than the revelation personally given to me by the Holy Spirit of the Most High God, Yahweh, and my own personal input, no part of this study is copyrighted by me.

All scriptures quoted in this study are from the NKJV or NIV version of copyrighted bibles.

That which I have been given, I have been given to share with you. You are most welcome to share with others and I only ask that you give honor where honor is due with all glory and honor unto the Father above.

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