Bible
Study: 1st Kings 17, 1 to 6 and Matthew 8,
1 to 12.
To be a man of faith is to
be a radical in some degree. To believe in something you have never seen before
or heard of and be willing to go through with it despite what the world thinks
is a form of madness. It is this madness that made the prophet Elijah declare
famine on an entire nation, this same madness that took him a place where ordinary
birds became his cooks serving him breakfast and dinner on a daily basis. Can
you beat that?
According to wildlife
research, the raven happens to be the stingiest birds on the planet yet when
God told Elijah that these birds would provide for him, he didn’t doubt a
single bit. He went to the very place where God told him and waited for the
ravens to bring him bread and meat. He did not ask how which bakery the birds
would be using neither did he ask if the birds had graduated from catering
school. He just went all the way because of his FAITH in the power of God.
How many of us today would
be told to go to a desert and wait for birds to bring us food and would not
hesitate? To have faith is to believe the impossible, expect the impossible and
produce impossible results. Faith does not always make sense! But it works. To have
faith in God is to live in manner the world may consider senseless, a manner
which the world rejects and still find happiness.
Just take a look at the
beatitudes. A careful examination of each of them reveals that they are the direct
opposite of the world’s definition of happiness yet they are the very things
that God recommends. It takes faith first to believe that within these seemingly
senseless beatitudes are the secrets of happiness and even greater faith to actually
live them out.
To be poor in spirit or to
be meek and merciful in heart for instance is to allow people ride on you. Nobody
loves to be taken for granted yet Jesus says this is the key to happiness. To have
a merciful heart is to be willing to forgive always and despite whatever one
may have done to you. According to the world, this is foolishness because if
you keep forgiving, people would keep riding on you. But Jesus says, happy are
you when you do so.
To be pure in heart is in
the eyes of the world absolute rubbish. In a world that uses the word “meat” to
describe the female gender, in a world that provides fashion for ladies to make
them appear like barbeque, a world that elevates nudity, obscenity and
indecency, one is made to believe that everybody is doing it. And so? Yet,
Jesus says, your key to happiness is to have a heart that is pure like that of
the Blessed Virgin Mary. Every wondered how Mary managed to treasure so many
things in her heart and did not die of depression? The truth is that Mary
actually lived a very blissful life. She was a happy woman because she was pure
in heart. She was a happy woman because she did not go about trying to seek
happiness from fleeting pleasures as the world does today.
To be a peace maker, to
hunger and thirst for righteousness, to allow oneself to suffer persecution for
the sake of the Gospel is the world’s definition for fanaticism but the truth
is that that is where true happiness lies.
Virtually everybody you know
right now hungers and thirst for money with the belief that the more money I get,
the happier I would become but the reverse is the case! To find true happiness,
hunger and thirst for righteousness instead!
Be a peacemaker, mend
bridges because quarrelling parties, don’t carry past grudges in your heart and
your heart would be happy always.
Be prepared to die for the
sake of doing the right thing because the joy of heaven is far far greater than
anything we can think of imagine. No wonder the martyrs sang for joy when they
were led to be fed with lions or hung.
The world is not always
right. The fact that everybody is doing a particular thing does not make it the
best way of doing it. If the world was right about what brings happiness, then
why are so many people unhappy today? Why are millions jumping off to commit
suicide day in day out? Why are people hooked on drugs and alcohol just to get
by in life? If the world was right about money, sex and happiness, then how
come there is still so much pain among the rich, the loosed and the addicts?
Let us Pray:
Lord Jesus, increase my
faith to believe in you and trust that I would find happiness by following your
beatitudes. Amen.
Good morning.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. Happy new week.
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