to pray for

In my reading of Matthew 5 tonight, I was captivated by characteristics of those whom God blesses. It's my hearts desire to be someone who glorifies God by who I am. So journey with me into the verses in the beginning of the chapter which highlight these traits:

poor in spirit
meek
humble
hunger and thirst for righteousness
merciful
pure in heart
peacemakers
persecuted for righteousness sake

he blesses you when people mock you, persecute you and lie about you for his name's sake.

grief. I can't tell you enough how NOT OFTEN I pray for these.

Well, maybe I do - on occasion. I can certainly remember a time or two praying for humility as well as a pure heart. I often do pray for a growing desire to want to know my Father better, but ask me how many times I've sincerely asked to be poor in Spirit! Not once.

God please mold me into someone who wholeheartedly seeks to become more like you - you blow my mind away by the things you say and what you've pointed out to me in this chapter. May I become all that blesses and glorifies you.

Another a-mazing tidbit that God so graciously revealed to me tonight in my reading was that Jesus came NOT to abolish/get rid of the law of Moses.

I have to brace myself for walking on eggshells here, but I so often fall into the safety net of believing that as Christ being the new covenant, that the old covenant is dead. gone. never existed. Whereas Christ says he didn't come to rid us of the law, but to accomplish it's purpose.

For example, the law says do not commit adultery but Christ says if you even lust over someone, you have committed adultery in your heart. Him coming, is not to make the law irrelevant, it's to point us to become more like Him in his fulfillment of the law. If our hearts are set on Christ, we, too, can reach for a righteous goal that we may not lust after, become angry at, judge, or curse someone.

We are FREED from being under the law and all of it's demands. It's Christ in us that allows us to fully abide in the law as we are meant to, because it's evident that we just can't muster up the will on our own!

Cheers!