4 More Amazing Happiness Tips is a follow-up to our last post, where we talked about being poor in spirit, mourning, meekness and hunger. These are 4 issues of the heart that are supernaturally transformed into blessings of True Happiness. We can define ‘Blessed’ as being fortunate, well off or happy. So these 4 states of being are not states of lack, but states of supreme spiritual happiness and enjoying the favor of God as it is defined in Webster’s 1828 dictionary.
Let’s continue with Matthew Chapter 5.
Happiness Tip #5 **Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy.**
If we dig into the meaning of merciful, we can find synonyms like: compassionate, tender, disposed to pity offenders and to forgive their offenses, unwilling to punish offenders, to not be cruel. I imagine we can clearly see that these are the Lord’s attributes and that they are difficult to imitate as mere human beings.
So, to be merciful is to say that we are exhibiting the essence of God/Christ. We are blessed, or happy, because we have grown to a place of fruitfulness and exhibiting the true character of Christ and not that of a prideful, unfeeling, arrogant, or unforgiving person. Being merciful means we have found peace with ourselves and with the depth of love that God calls us to. That peace bears the fruit of happier living.
Happiness Tip #6 ** Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God **
Several posts back, we talked in depth on the subject of Pure of Heart. What we didn’t talk about in that post is the Happiness reward that those with a pure heart will receive by seeing God.
We all know that in eternity we will see God as He is. We also know that Moses wanted to see God but was only allowed to see Him from the back. God was and is so Holy and so Pure that it seems that our earthly eyes could just never take in all of Him at once. It would be too much for us.
So, does this Happiness Tip only mean we will see God in an eternal sense? Maybe.
But, have you ever had those moments when you just sensed that you had just experienced a greater vision of God in your understanding? Or maybe someone in your world showed such grace or mercy or kindness that you suspected you had witnessed something that was not of this world?
It is also possible that you are at a place in your walk with the Lord that you recognize more easily what is false and what is true about Him? That your understanding of Him has deepened in such a way that He is not simply a small god in a little box? But, now, His work in you has opened your eyes to see Him regarding His greatness and His Holiness and His mercy in your own life. And that seeing those things in Him, has challenged you to model those traits in your own life. It has also spurred you on to know Him even deeper so you can ‘see’ Him even more clearly, which in turn, gives you even more desire to be like Him.
Pureness of Heart. The motivation to see more of God in a way that ‘accidentally’ makes us even happier!
TIP #7-** Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. **
God is the ultimate Peacemaker. A Peacemaker is: One who makes peace by reconciling parties that are at variance. We all know that God sent His Son to us to reconcile humanity to Him, our Creator, thus making peace between people and God.
That sacrifice gives us the opportunity to be like God when we share His message with others and lead them to Christ.
We can also be peacemakers by helping any two or more parties find a middle ground that ends the conflict they are in, whether it be marriage conflicts, sibling rivalry, church tensions or any other troubled relationship.
To be honest, it is easier to be the cause of conflict than it is to be the one who reconciles conflict. But just because it isn’t easy, doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try, right? Once the conflict has been appeased, we can rejoice in having had a little part in it. We will also be happy to see that we manifest something that assures us and others that we are, indeed, a child of God.
Tip #8- Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Tip #8 is a two part blessing for happiness. But they are both tough ones. Most of the other Beatitudes are for having positive qualities before God and man. But these two blessings (happiness makers) are going to cost us something.
Being persecuted for righteousness’ sake is going to put us in conflict with others (the opposite of being a peacemaker). Doing what is right and living clean makes some people uncomfortable. Declaring Christ can put us on dangerous ground.
The second part of Tip #8 is:
** Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. **
Part 2 of this Tip tells us that we are not just blessed, but that we can be EXCEEDINGLY GLAD for being marginalized, mocked, beaten, or jailed for being open about our life of faith and our life choices. I think we can all see this happening in our society today in how Christians are being treated around the world. It is not popular to believe what we believe.
So, we can be happy about it, very happy, or we can forget who we are and be as mean as others are to us, throwing the whole Sermon on the Mount out the window.
The kingdom of Heaven is promised to those who believe in the Savior and live like they believe in Him and His ways. Once we get there, we will be comforted, we shall inherit the earth, we will be filled, we will obtain mercy, see God, be called children of God, and have a great reward. Some of this we will even enjoy today, others we will have to wait for eternity to receive them.
These are our 4 Amazing Tips on Happiness from the Sermon on the Mount. Plus the 4 from our last post. I hope you are encouraged and challenged to work at being happier along the lines of Matthew Chapter 5. It will cost you and I something. But the reward will be worth it.