Casandra Martin

I kept glancing at my watch, waiting for it to hit the top of the hour. The moment had almost arrived, and I was a little nervous. I shifted in my seat, looking at my watch again. Finally, the big hand reached twelve. I knew they were praying, and I breathed a little easier.

Several days earlier, I asked a group of my friends to be praying for me at this exact moment. They eagerly grabbed pen and paper, soaking in my request. Knowing their hearts, I knew that they would surround me in prayer when the hour arrived. Text messages reminded me that I was loved and covered in grace. My heart beat a little more evenly knowing they were asking God to guide my steps and reveal His glory in my situation at this precise moment.

Praying for someone is a profound privilege. We often have the opportunity to bring the struggles, heartaches, joys, tears, and concerns of others before our Father. Taking the next step and telling them you will be praying for them at a specific time makes the reality of your prayers concrete for the person you love. Ask when the appointment is, set an alarm, and pray. Commit to praying at the same time every day for your family. Tell them, and watch how the knowledge that you are covering them in prayer at that time lifts their eyes to God. Write a card, telling the recipient that you will spend a day this week taking them into the throne room of heaven.

My Jesus Resolution today is to be a part of the great cloud of witnesses. I have an opportunity today to cheer somebody on and encourage them in their walk of faith. I can surround them with prayer, send a text, write a card, give a hug, or whisper grace. Being specific about my willingness to connect our hearts gives us both a tangible way to experience God’s presence and power.

I am naturally invisible. I have a tendency to want to hide inside of myself. It is easier to smile and say, “fine…” than it is to be real, honest, open, and authentic. Sometimes it is because I want to impress you. Most of the time it is because I want to protect myself. I am ashamed of all of the fear, pride, guilt, laziness, and failure that are piled up in my heart. There is so much trash that it is hard to imagine that God sees a treasure in me somewhere.

Transparency is the antidote to invisibility. As long as I hide my junk and pretend that it doesn’t exist, there is no way to give it to God to heal, wash, renew, and restore. Being transparent means being see through. It requires being real. It means admitting that I don’t have it all figured out, pinned down, or in order. I have to be honest that I can’t do it by myself. And that is scary.

I worry about letting people down. About not being good enough. But here is the truth. My kids don’t need a perfect mom. They need a mom who can show them how to repent, be humble, accept forgiveness, and celebrate grace. My friends don’t need me to have it all together. They need a friend who can open her heart, let them walk in the mess, and find joy in helping each other up. My church family doesn’t need the “Sunday morning” version of myself. They need the me who is broken over sin, honest about my struggles, and willing to let others lift my arms. How do I know? Because that is what I need from all of them.

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” – 2 Corinthians 4:7

My Jesus Resolution today is to be see through. Covering up, putting on the mask, saying ‘fine’, and being invisible is a temptation I am going to resist today. It is okay to have questions, doubts, fears, and sticky, broken places. Transparency lets people see that stuff because that is when they get to see a miracle. When I let them see through to the real me, they also get to see the real goodness and amazing love of God taking all that junk and transforming me into the image of Jesus.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 5:10

I was in the tenth grade when I raised my hand. I can still see the classroom, visualize the notes on the board, remember the feel of the desk piled with books, and the look on my teacher’s face. We had spent the day before working through a discussion about an American author and his views on spirituality, nature, and transcendence. It all sounded so reasonable that when the teacher asked if we all agreed with the author, everyone in the room nodded yes, including me.

That night, I couldn’t get the discussion out of my head. Something was prickling at the back of my brain. It just didn’t add up. As I pondered, I realized what was wrong. The author in his writings, and my teacher in his discussion, had changed God’s role in the world and in the human heart.

The next day, the teacher picked up the discussion where we had left off. “Since we all agree…” I took a deep breath, raised my hand, and talked about God. Later, my teacher looked at me and said, “Someday you will get over this Christianity thing.”

Nobody wants this final blessing. Persecution, in whatever form, hurts and we go to great lengths to avoid pain, discomfort, and ridicule. Walking in this world in the radical way that Christ has unfolded in the Beatitudes will make us targets for persecution. Looking like Jesus means we don’t look like the world and the world doesn’t like that. Jesus wraps this final blessing around our hearts, reminding us to find our place of belonging, our sense of identity, and our perspective on life in His kingdom.

My Jesus Resolution today is to raise my hand. My life is filled with moments when it would be easier to blend in and go along. It isn’t an accident that the words immediately following the Beatitudes speak of being a light in a dark world. It is hard to be the only one to raise your hand, speak up, walk away, or say ‘no.’ I wish I could talk to that teacher today. I haven’t gotten over this Christianity thing. In fact, every day I pray that it gets all over me. And that is what is at the heart of these blessings.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”
– Matthew 5:9

I love quilts. Quilts always tell a story about the person who put it together. It reveals something special about their passions, perseverance, and perspective. I am not very good at quilting, but I am fascinated with the idea of taking pieces and making them into something whole, unique, and beautiful.

Quilts don’t begin as the colorful, soft blankets that enwrap us in warmth. They start out as pieces. Quilts have to be made. They have to be put together, basted, stretched, and sewn. It is only after time, love, energy, resources, and effort have been invested that we have a quilt to enjoy.

Piecemakers and peacemakers have a lot in common.

The seventh blessing Jesus extends to those who walk with His heart is to the peacemakers. God promises to bless, work deep inside of, those who are willing to look at the scattered pieces around them and imagine that they could be bound together by grace into something unique and beautiful. Just like a quilt, it takes a peacemaker to bring the pieces together.

Peacemaking may be the riskiest blessing that Jesus speaks. It requires me to choose inclusion over comfort, kindness over cattiness, patience over pride, and vulnerability over safety. Grace and love have to be sewn into every encounter, every conversation, and every exchange.

My Jesus Resolution today is to sew peace. Heart pieces are fragile things. It doesn’t take much to make us feel tattered and torn. Peacemakers look for ways to join people together. They are bridge makers, not wall builders. A peacemaker extends grace and speaks love even if someone is different, demanding, or difficult. Jesus is a Peacemaker. He takes our ripped, ragged remnants and pieces them together into something that tells a story about grace, goodness, and God. When I follow in His steps, others can see His story written in me.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” – Matthew 5:8

I am a big fan of clean water. We have a filter on our sink, on our fridge, and a filtered pitcher that stays full and cold. We encourage everyone in our family to drink lots of water. Good, clean, pure water is the foundation for good health.

A good, clean, pure heart is the foundation for good spiritual health as well.

Pour yourself some water in a tall, clear glass. Sit down and really look at it. What do you see? If it is really pure water, the answer is that the water is transparent. Clean water allows you to see through it.

Now add some soap, a dollop of grease, a little dirt, some coffee grounds, a couple of drops of food coloring, and whatever just came in on the bottom of your son’s shoe. How does it look now? What do you see? Want to take a drink?

That glass is a picture of your heart. Jesus fills us with living water. It is pure and clean, straight from the heart of God. The contaminants are the things that we let into our lives through television, music, books, friends, Facebook, and our own imagination. We think that one television show, one song, or one conversation doesn’t affect us, but remember the glass of water. It doesn’t take much to change good, clean, pure water into something undrinkable.

What we need is a filter. Every drop of water I drink goes through a filter. That is a good picture of what my heart needs as well. Every piece of my life needs to be filtered through the person, message, and grace of Jesus Christ. He will remove the impurities, clean out the dirt, and stop the junk from infiltrating my heart and polluting my soul.

My Jesus Resolution today is to be as vigilant about my heart as I am about my water. The Bible, prayer, worship, service, and connection to God’s family are all filters that help me maintain my purity. I want my life to be transparent so that others can see God. The neat thing about pure water is that not only is it transparent, it is reflective. When we walk with pure hearts, we can see God’s reflection and others can see Jesus through us.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” – Matthew 5:7

Mercy is a boomerang. A boomerang is a tool that was originally developed by the Aboriginal tribes of Australia. Over time, certain tribes developed boomerangs that could not only be thrown, but would return to the thrower. What went out from your hand would eventually come back to you.

Jesus tells us that this is the powerful effect of mercy. The mercy we receive from God isn’t supposed to stay bottled up inside of us. It is supposed to flow through us, impacting the lives of others. The boomerang effect of God’s mercy means that it comes back to Him in the form of praise and thanksgiving.

The boomerang effect of mercy also has ripples for our own hearts. By nature, we are people with a get-even nature. We treat others the way that we have been treated. If someone is kind, we generally respond with kindness. If someone is rude, we snap and snarl in return.

On the mount, Jesus tells us to take our cue from the heart of God Himself. When we sin, He loves. When we rebel, He offers peace. When we are apathetic, He pursues. When we are ashamed, He covers us with grace. Christ’s mercy transforms our relationship with God.  Having received this amazing mercy, He then calls us to allow it to touch our relationships with others. The results are often startling.

My Jesus Resolution today is to leave mercy behind wherever I go today. I want to leave a piece of Jesus with each person I meet. It may come in the form of a smile, a blessing, eye contact and a pleasant word, or a Bible verse. It may involve a simple kindness, an act of service, or going the extra mile. Whatever it is, I want others to experience His mercy, even if it is just for a moment. Mercy is a boomerang. When I thow it, it opens up my life to His transforming blessings, making me even more wide-eyed at the mercy He pours out on me.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” – Matthew 5:6

Have you ever had a craving? A craving is more than a passing whim. It is a deep desire. It is a hunger that pulls at our eyes, crawls into our minds, and demands our attention. It is persistent in its call and tenacious in its ability to change our direction and refocus our vision. We will go out of our way to satisfy a craving. We will go the extra distance, pay the extra cost, or give the extra time in order to answer the call of a craving.

Not all cravings are bad. In fact, a craving can reveal a deep need, provide the answer for a significant struggle, or be the remedy for something that is broken and hurting in my heart. Here is my problem – most of my cravings are too shallow. I waste the power of a craving on something that will only bring me temporary satisfaction instead of eternal enjoyment.

With His fourth blessing, Jesus calls me to crave something different than the shallow pleasures of the world. He challenges me to let righteousness be the thing that I hunger for most deeply. He holds up His own heart and asks me to have an unquenchable thirst to be like Him. He offers to unleash a craving for His goodness deep into my soul. God promises a blessing and overwhelming satisfaction for those who will make looking like Jesus the constant craving of their hearts.

My Jesus Resolution today is to (gulp!) fast from the things of this world in order to reset my craving for righteousness. Fasting challenges me to turn off the world and turn my eyes and my desires over to God. Fasting can take many different forms. I can fast from media, food, shopping, noise, busyness, books, certain relationships, specific eats and drinks, or a hobby or habit for an hour, an afternoon, a day, or a set period of time. The point is to prayerfully consider what craving competes the most with my hunger to look like Jesus. (Here is a secret – it is usually the thing that you are the most afraid of giving up or the habit that you think you can’t live without.) The blessing? When I let my craving for Jesus drive my actions, control my thoughts, and form my focus, God promises to answer my hunger by giving me Himself.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” – Matthew 5:5

I watched the two-year old across the room. Blond curls, little shoes, sweet smile, and a stubborn streak. She was determined to “do it myself.” You know the look. The one that challenges those around her to just try and help. Her eyes blazed with a desire to be independent, figure it out, and make the effort without assistance. With a little one, you just have to smile. It is part of growing up.

Looking in the mirror, I often see that same stubborn streak. We pride ourselves on our ability to lead independent, self-sufficient lives. I still have an overwhelming desire to prove that I can do it by myself, that I don’t need anyone’s help, and that I can manage just fine, thank you very much. I hold people at arm’s length, not wanting them to see the cracks in my carefully-managed façade of independence. In the process, I hold God at arm’s length as well.

Jesus offers a blessing to those who are grown-up enough to realize that dependence on God is the best mark of maturity. Meekness means that I give up my grabbing, pushing, clawing, climbing ways and trust God to take care of me. I stop trying to push my way to the top, and allow Him to draw me closer to His side. I move from being independent to be in-dependence.

My Jesus Resolution today is to embrace meekness. A meek spirit prizes gentleness and humility. It means looking to God before taking each step, trusting that in following Him, He will bring to my day exactly what I need to not only survive, but thrive. Inheriting the earth is a promise that invites me to live within the fullness of God’s faithful promises. When I choose meekness over independence, all of the needs I worry about meeting for myself are met by His overwhelming grace.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” – Matthew 5:4

I am a gifted rationalizer. Rationalization is all about the spin. It allows us to take something that we know isn’t best, and make it into something that, in the moment, we can justify as worth our time, money, attention, or effort.

The art of rationalizing started in the Garden and has been gathering speed ever since. Sin requires rationalization. We have to talk ourselves into it. Sometimes it is not very hard – a simple “I deserve it” may be all that is needed. A bad habit is a sin that we have justified over and over again until we are able to push the guilt away without thought.

The second blessing Jesus announces in the Sermon on the Mount challenges our tendency to rationalize. God blesses those who can look honestly at their sin and grieve what it is, what it does, and how deeply it impacts both our hearts and His heart. It calls me to let go of the justifying, rationalizing explanations that I have ready, and look with a tender heart at the ugliness of sin.

When I mourn my sin, I set down my need to control my image, spin my comfort, and justify my own desires and look intently into the mirror of God’s holiness. When the light of His purity shines on the broken crags and ugly shadows of my sin-etched heart, it breaks through my rationalizations and opens my life up to His cleansing, healing touch.

My Jesus Resolution today is to take a hard look at my habits and choices. Rationalization is a hard habit to break. It allows me to embrace sin and hold God at arm’s length. I close the door on God’s blessing, His work in my life, and His transformation of my heart as long as I keep rationalizing. He can’t heal something I won’t acknowledge is broken. He is unable to forgive something I won’t call sin. When I am brave enough to look honestly at my actions and attitudes, God promises that He will be right there wrapping me in a comforting blanket of grace.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 5:3

Jesus opens the Beatitudes with a stunner. He announces that the kingdom of heaven, the very dwelling place of God, belongs to those who are impoverished, destitute, broken, and hopeless. Grace, Jesus proclaims, belongs to those who don’t have it all together.

I don’t know about you, but that is good news for me.

Our world spends a lot of time defining who “belongs.” If you are popular, famous, or beautiful, you are in. If you are smart, wealthy, or powerful, you can stay. If you know the right people, can open the right doors, or produce the right vibe, you belong. The rest of us spend a lot of time with our noses pressed against the glass. We evaluate their clothes, imitate their style, replicate their talk, and copy their actions in an effort to look “in.” We jockey for position, hoping to get a little bit closer to belonging to the circle of people who always seem to be just out of reach.

Jesus stands on a mountain and invites us to belong to Him. The kingdom of heaven can be ours. He offers us the ultimate “in.” The only requirement – we have to know how completely we don’t have it all together. We have to be aware of our limitations, understand our dependence, and be transparent about our inability to do for ourselves.
We are blessed, wide open for the movement of God, if we can grasp how broke and broken we truly are.

I stagger under the wisdom of this first blessing. Am I brave enough to set down all of my self-managing, control-the-spin, make-myself-look-good efforts and admit – live within the truth – that I don’t have it all together?

My Jesus Resolution today is to stop trying to fit in to the world and settle into belonging to God. Here is my reality – I am a mess. My family has flaws, my marriage has its moments, and my faith has cracks and doubts. I struggle with my weight, my money, my time, and my temper. Here is the rest of my reality – God loves me and is blessing (read transforming and working within) every broken, damaged, poverty-stricken piece of my heart that I am willing to give into His hands.