The Beatitudes – Chapter Nine
Blessed are the Merciful
Printables
- Merciful coloring page to print and color and keep in your mini-binder.
Assignment for next week
- Read chapter 10 in the book.
- Complete pages for chapter 10 in the workbook.
- After the pages are completed, click on Week 9, Chapter 10 on the Workshop homepage.
- AND add a short comment on this page to help out other women and share what you’ve learned. And leave a comment replying to someone else if you can!
Each week is heart changing. I am blown away by what and how God is working in my heart. It has hurt, but it is beautiful. This past week and a half/two weeks I have become increasingly more aware of the ugliness of sin in my heart. Recently it has been covetousness and self-pity, but earlier this year it was that God showed me I often assume the worst in others and at the time I glossed over it, in the video when you mentioned that, it again convicted me. Each video hits me right where I need not only some guidance, but practical ideas on how to walk out the truth of Scripture and Dr. Lloyd-Jones’ teaching.
I get that there is to be no pride left in myself, but when Dr. Lloyd-Jones pointed out that actually extends to the urge to be vindictive (or to gloat when someone gets what is coming to them) and to insist upon my rights (how often I utter “this is SO unfair”) – that is my battlefield.
Yes! Me too! And to think before reading the SOTM I used to think that most days were pretty “vanilla” days, without any sin I could think of. I’m ashamed and embarrassed to think of the truth of it now. Each day I continue to see the darkness of my own heart and my desperate need for Jesus!
I’m right there with you, Sunshine. I think there is more surgery to be done, though.
This Spurgeon devotional came into my inbox this morning:
Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up ( Hosea 6:1 )
It is the Lord’s way to tear before He heals. This is the honest love of His heart, and the sure surgery of His hand. He also bruises before He binds up, or else it would be uncertain work. The law comes before the gospel; the sense of need before the supply of it. Is the reader now under the convincing, crushing hand of the Spirit? Has he received the spirit of bondage again to fear? This is a salutary preliminary to real gospel healing and binding up.
Do not despair, dear heart, but come to the Lord with all thy jagged wounds, black bruises, and running sores. He alone can heal, and He delights to do it. It is our Lord’s office to bind up the brokenhearted, and He is gloriously at home at it. Let us not linger, but at once return unto the Lord from whom we have gone astray. Let us show Him our gaping wounds, and beseech Him to know His own work, and complete it. Will a surgeon make an incision, and then leave his patient to bleed to death? Will the Lord pull down our old house, and then refuse to build us a better one? Dost thou ever wantonly increase the misery of poor anxious souls? That be far from thee, O Lord.
I have not gotten to this chapter for a couple of weeks and it is in God’s perfect timing that I am here at this time, at this place. I needed the events of the last couple of weeks to play out. And though I see progress in my life in the way I reacted to said events, this chapter showed me I am far from what Christ is. Each chapter is a further and continual breaking/slaying of Jenny. And the more I am broken and impoverished, the more I can only rest in and rely on Him.
I just had a thought go through my mind which would relate to mourning and mercy. If we are truly crucified with Christ and He lives in us, then anything done against us is actually being done to Him. Which is cause for greater mourning, a different kind of mourning. Jesus was never disturbed by what was done against Himself, but only what was done against God and again others. All the more reason for us to say, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”
I appreciate this video so much as you gave me ideas as to practical application. I especially like what you said, “actively choosing to please God and not myself.” I tend to think that being on the side of righteousness and truth is actively choosing to please God. I, too, have a besetting sin of perfectionism. (Have you listened to this podcast? https://justthinking.me/ep-118-a-biblical-response-to-perfectionism/. It’s nearly 3 hours long, but well worth the time. Take it in small sections. ). And you are right, we tend to have a higher expectation of those in our family and those who claim the name of Christ.
What I really liked in this chapter was at the beginning where Dr. Jones spoke of the need to have the inward reality of these virtues which will work out in action. This has been coming home to me in recent months. This is so counter American culture and American church right now where the goal is for the pragmatic in our faith. Yes, the Lord sees our deeds, but the deeds must flow from an increasingly changed heart. Not that I wait to act until my heart is right, but I must press into Him all the more and desire His righteousness and His life to work His purpose in me. For me to live is Christ. I don’t go out and obey in my own strength, but respond to Him.
This chapter really showed me what mercy really is and I agree with Sunshine and the rest of the ladies that my eyes are opened to needing to show mercy to others. Doctor MLJ supreme example of looking at Jesus on the cross, who never sinned, who never did any harm to anyone, who came and preached the truth, who came to seek and save those who were lost. He prayed for Father GOD to forgive them for they do not know what they do. Just the continued look back over each Beatitude continues to show me that I am so sinful and my heart is corrupt even when I think I am doing good.. is it for me or for GOD. Just his pointing out that we do not naturally have a forgiving heart really hit home as the DL Moody quote that was in our church bulletin said ..” Those who say they will forgive, simply bury the hatchet but leave the handle out for immediate use. ” Each chapter continues to show me that I can do absolutely nothing especially live out The Beatitudes without the Father GOD, Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
I can see that reading and processing this will not be a one time event. There is so much to reflect on – I’m so grateful to having been introduced to this book and the wisdom of the Dr. I know I will be re-reading it. My copy is already getting underlined etc.
Thanks to all the people who comment so well!!
I agree, Judith! There is just SO much to digest that is SO different from what I have learned before.
Here is a small sampling of some of the quotes that stood out to me from Chapter 9 regarding the characteristics of a Christian:
“never objects to being humbled”
“we are controlled by the Spirit–as we live our ordinary lives declaring all the time exactly what we are”
“has a feeling of pity…concern about the misery of men and women..a great desire, and indeed an endeavor, to do something to relieve it”
The one striking and searching comment that Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says – “I have seen myself, and my greatest enemy does not know the worst about me.” – SO so SOOOO true.
When he again says – ‘the whole of our life is an expression and a proclamation of what we really are.’ – nothing humbles me quicker than to realize that my life is basically lived out each day proclaiming what I really am…and when I stop to examine that and think of that in light of the SOTM, I find myself uttering – oh wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me? BUT then when I carry it a step further and realize JESUS – all of it rests upon Him – my deliverance, my righteousness, my mercy, my hope – Praise God for His mercy in Jesus!!!
Now, when I am seeing myself truly and rightly – then and only then – am I equipped to see my hurts and my ‘enemies’, because I realize that just like me, sin has tsunamied lives and relationships – and because of that – the only hope, the only mercy, the only salvation and deliverance is Jesus. So instead of ‘what about what is right for Sunshine, what is fair for me’….it becomes – Jesus be near. Jesus save us, have mercy on us, bind up our broken hearts and direct our steps.