EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/16/2026
9:34 PM
My
Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “The
Blessed”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference:
Luke
6:20b-23
Message
of the verses: “Blessed are you who are poor, for
yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are
you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and
ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the
Son of Man. Be glad in that day and leap
for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven. For in the same way their fathers used to
treat the prophets.”
Tonight I begin looking at the verses above with the help
of John MacArthur’s commentary so that we will become more understanding of
these verses to help us grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jeus
Christ.
Let us begin by looking at the first
characteristic of those who are blessed and that is that they are poor. The word in the Greek for poor is Ptochos,
and this derives from the verb ptosso, which means, “to cringe and cower
in fear.’ This describes those who are
utterly destitute and entirely dependent on others for support, These people are at the bottom rung of the
social scale. While the Bible commends
helping those in need as seen in the following verses (Lev. 25:35; Deut.
15:7-8; Proverbs 19:17; Isaiah 58:6-7; Gal. 2:10), poverty itself is not a blessing. Now I want to take the time to quote this
list of verses.
(Lev. 25:35; Deut. 15:7-8; Proverbs
19:17; Isaiah 58:6-7; Gal. 2:10)
“35 "If your brother becomes poor and cannot
maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger
and a sojourner, and he shall live with you.”
“7 "If among you, one of your brothers
should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the LORD your
God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against
your poor brother, 8 but you shall open
your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.”
“17 ¶ Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the
LORD, and he will repay him for his deed.”
“6 "Is not this the fast that I choose: to
loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the
oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover
him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?”
“10 Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the
very thing I was eager to do.”
The truth
is that in Proverbs 30:8-9, a righteous man asked the Lord to preserve him from
poverty so that he would not be tempted to steal and thus profane the name of
the Lord.
However Jesus was not teaching that
those who are materially and economically poor are thereby blessed. In the parallel account of the sermon, it
indicates the Lord was speaking of those who are “poor in spirit” (Matt.
5:3). The blessed are those who
understand their spiritual poverty and the bankrupt condition of their soul,
mattering not how much or how little wealth they have. They acknowledge that they are bankrupt in
righteousness and have absolutely no spiritual resources with which to obtain
God’s favor, and that salvation cannot be by good works, morality, or religious
rituals. What we are writing about is
actually the key to understanding what the Bible teaches us on how a person can
be saved. You truly have to realize that
you are born lost in a relationship with God, and then you must tell the Lord
this truth, and then after that realization of being lost you must accept the offer
of salvation Jesus offers. Jesus is able
to offer you this salvation because of what He did on the cross as He paid for
your sins, but you must accept His forgiveness to be saved. Religious rituals are like the repentant tax
collector in Luke 18:13, who “was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven,
but was beating his breast, say, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’” (cf. Pss.
34:18; 51:17; Isa. 57:15; and 66:2)
(cf. Pss. 34:18; 51:17; Isa. 57:15; and
66:2)
“18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and
saves the crushed in spirit.’
“17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a
broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
“15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted
up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and
holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive
the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.”
“2 All these things my hand has made, and so all
these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will
look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”
Jesus
described such people in Luke 4:18 as poor, captives, blind, and oppressed, and
proclaimed the gospel of God’s forgiveness, grace, and mercy to them.”
(Luke 4:18)
“18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to
proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set
at liberty those who are oppressed,”
Please all
who read this SD pray for my wife who is battling cancer and is on hospice care.
7/16/2026
10:25 PM
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