Casandra Martin

Reading through the Sermon on the Mount reveals a stubborn kingdom logic that isn’t easily defined and can’t quickly be dismissed. Immanuel comes to earth to literally be “God With Us.” He walks in our shoes, sleeps in our beds, eats our food, and experiences human life with all of its beauty and pain. As He does so, He extends grace, offers hope, provides healing, and insistently asks us to look with wider eyes, listen with willing hearts, and believe that the impossible is really within reach.

Exploring the eight blessings that launch the Sermon on the Mount are enough to make me step back from the words with my hand over my mouth. These are not typical rules for ethical living or a glorified recipe for success. They encapsulate a mindset, propose a faith, and offer a vision of God that have the power to transform everything about my world.

The promises attached to these blessings are staggering. Seeing God’s face, wearing His name, receiving His mercy, being fully satisfied, experiencing deep comfort, inheriting the breadth of His faithfulness, and possessing the kingdom are beyond imagination kind of promises. “For me?” I wonder. “For anyone willing to live within the transformation I want to work in your life,” Jesus says.

Am I brave enough to believe Jesus?

My Jesus Resolution today is to pray for courage. There is a reason that “Fear Not” is the most oft repeated command in the Bible. It takes bravery and faith to step beyond what I can see into a world redefined by Love and redeemed by Grace. I have to be willing to let go of what I can control, figure out, understand, and handle myself in order to discover the wonder and wisdom of a life far different than I can imagine on my own. I want to spend the next several blogs exploring these blessings. Or perhaps better said, letting them explore, change, and redefine me. Are you brave enough to join me?