Read: Matthew 5:3
“One day as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down. His disciples gathered around him, and he began to teach them.” Matthew 5:1-2 NLT
In this Bible reading plan, we’ll spend time each day reading from Matthew 5, or sometimes more commonly called the Sermon on the Mount. During Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, He tells His disciples that God blesses nine different groups of people that show specific behaviors or attitudes. These spoken words are known as the “Beatitudes” because verses 3-11 all start with the word beatus in the Latin version of the Bible. Beatus means “blessed” or “happy” in English.
The nine groups He describes are not what we may see as necessarily being “blessed.” The first group is the poor. We immediately think of financial poverty, but this is not what Jesus was referencing. Instead, it is the “poor in spirit,” or realizing that we have nothing to offer God in terms of being good or righteous. Those who are blessed are those who depend on God for forgiveness rather than self-righteousness. By doing that, we are promised that the kingdom of heaven is already ours. That's a blessing!