How to get blessed!

Matt 5:11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. To revile means to make a fierce and abusive verbal attack. The religioneers said Jesus was crazy that he had a devil, that he was a Samaritan (John 8:48) and that He was mad (John 10:20).

If that wasn’t bad enough they mocked Him while He hung on the cross. He who knew no sin; the blameless and perfect one was being mocked by His own creation. But being reviled He did not revile back. 1 Peter 2:23 “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.” This verse is such a challenge to my soul. He didn’t hurl insults; these guys weren’t made at him because he cut them off in traffic, they loathed Jesus. I can’t even get cut off in traffic without getting angry and mumbling underneath my breath at the crazy driver.

It is not blessed to have evil spoken of us if we deserve it, but if we don’t deserve it Jesus calls us blessed Once again Jesus is asking us to do something He already modeled for us. We can do this with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. How do I know this? Because Peter, who once cut off the ear of a soldier, saw Jesus model this in real life. Then Peter full of the Holy Spirit was able to endure beating, persecution and even crucifixion. It is the same spirit that dwelt within Christ and enabled Him to exhibit self-control that now dwells within believers and we must tap into the Holy Spirit to live out this virtue of Christ’s. It worked for Peter it will work for me. How can we call this experience blessed? Because Jesus endured this and He promised that if we took up our own cross and followed Him, that He would ensure blessings to us.

Lord, prepare me today before true persecution comes.—Amen.