The past month my church group has been focusing on the Sermon on the Mount for which we get the Beatitudes from Jesus. The cool thing about going through this has been that I learned that the order of the Beatitudes is important as Jesus was giving His people a road map of how to be transformed through Him. Jesus lived His life perfectly and is our example for what we should strive for. Two times Jesus talks about righteousness in the Beatitudes: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied" and "Blessed are those that are persecuted for the sake of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." As I learned more about this and dove deeper into my own prayer time it occurred to me that Jesus didn't say blessed are THE righteous, or blessed are those that are persecuted for THEIR righteousness.....no, Jesus said blessed are those who hunger and thirst, blessed are those that are persecuted for the sake of righteousness.
This is kind of a difficult thing to write about because over the past couple weeks I realized that I am not righteous in my own doing. Doing things that are righteous does not mean that I am righteous in the eyes of the Lord. It's such a fine line to skate. I have a great friend and old teammate that from the outside is the most righteous person I've ever met (from a secular perspective), however he doesn't believe in Jesus. In my reading and effort to understand what God was showing me in this is that I am not righteous.....but I can be righteous by being IN Jesus and Jesus alone.
2nd Corinthians 5:21- God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
How great is that?! We are not righteous, but through Jesus Christ we might BECOME the righteousness of God. Become is a huge word there. To become means to begin to be or start new. You can't become something without having some sort of change agent, and additionally, you can't become something unless you're put in the right position. Example: I can't become a good golfer if I don't practice. Also, I can't become a good golfer if I only practice on the tennis court. You have to have a change agent and be in position. What does that mean in terms of your faith?: Our change agent towards righteousness is Jesus Christ and accepting Him into our hearts! That's the beginning! Second, we become righteous through the pursuit of Him in our daily lives. What good is gasoline if it's not put into an engine? What good is fresh water poured onto concrete? What good is a person that has Christ in their heart but doesn't pursue the course Jesus wants us to?
1 Timothy 6:11- But you, man of God, flee from all this and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.
We are called to pursue righteousness. The only way to pursue righteousness is by accepting Jesus Christ into our hearts and then consistently seeking His will over ours. What is Jesus's will? It is obedience to His word. My life has drastically changed when I realized the fact that I am not perfect and in fact I am absolutely nothing without Jesus. I was made by Him for Him, so without Him in my life what would I be? It is a daily thing to give your life to God and to PURSUE Him and through Him---PURSUE righteousness.
So what are you going to do? I pray that you pursue instead of do. Pursue our savior Jesus Christ. Pursue the word of God. Pursue godliness. Pursue righteousness.
Have a great week!
Cameron
This is kind of a difficult thing to write about because over the past couple weeks I realized that I am not righteous in my own doing. Doing things that are righteous does not mean that I am righteous in the eyes of the Lord. It's such a fine line to skate. I have a great friend and old teammate that from the outside is the most righteous person I've ever met (from a secular perspective), however he doesn't believe in Jesus. In my reading and effort to understand what God was showing me in this is that I am not righteous.....but I can be righteous by being IN Jesus and Jesus alone.
2nd Corinthians 5:21- God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
How great is that?! We are not righteous, but through Jesus Christ we might BECOME the righteousness of God. Become is a huge word there. To become means to begin to be or start new. You can't become something without having some sort of change agent, and additionally, you can't become something unless you're put in the right position. Example: I can't become a good golfer if I don't practice. Also, I can't become a good golfer if I only practice on the tennis court. You have to have a change agent and be in position. What does that mean in terms of your faith?: Our change agent towards righteousness is Jesus Christ and accepting Him into our hearts! That's the beginning! Second, we become righteous through the pursuit of Him in our daily lives. What good is gasoline if it's not put into an engine? What good is fresh water poured onto concrete? What good is a person that has Christ in their heart but doesn't pursue the course Jesus wants us to?
1 Timothy 6:11- But you, man of God, flee from all this and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.
We are called to pursue righteousness. The only way to pursue righteousness is by accepting Jesus Christ into our hearts and then consistently seeking His will over ours. What is Jesus's will? It is obedience to His word. My life has drastically changed when I realized the fact that I am not perfect and in fact I am absolutely nothing without Jesus. I was made by Him for Him, so without Him in my life what would I be? It is a daily thing to give your life to God and to PURSUE Him and through Him---PURSUE righteousness.
So what are you going to do? I pray that you pursue instead of do. Pursue our savior Jesus Christ. Pursue the word of God. Pursue godliness. Pursue righteousness.
Have a great week!
Cameron
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