In my Bible, there are captions over the different sections. For Matthew 5, the caption reads; “The Beatitudes.” As I began reading this chapter recently, I misread the caption as “Be attitudes.”

(And yeah, I know that attitudes has one more “t” than beatitudes, but I had a head injury several years ago and while I am mostly recovered, when I’m tired my eyes glitch a little. And perhaps God wanted me to read it as “be attitudes.”)

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3)

So when I be poor in spirit, that means the kingdom of heaven is mine. My attitude about spiritual poverty changes from “Oh, woe is me” to “Wow! I am blessed because the kingdom of heaven is mine. Jesus said so.”

In Matthew 6, Jesus went on to speak about physical needs:

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?... But strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:25, 33)

So while in the beatitudes Jesus spoke of spiritual poverty, here He speaks of the very real physical needs we have as well. And He tells us to trust that God will provide for those in the same way that He provides for our spiritual poverty and needs; we change our attitude from fear and lack to belief in the God who cares.

This is a hard lesson for me to learn because I have lived in survival mode for most of my life, thinking that it is all up to me to have my needs taken care of. It has taken far too many years to begin to let go and trust for God’s provision for my life. It takes changing my attitude about God and His willingness to care for me. I suspect that I will be learning this right up to my very last day.

And from Matthew, I moved to the Psalms and this was the next passage that leapt out at me. It’s about the kingdom of heaven and the abundance God has in store for us. Do you think He is trying to send me a message?

How priceless is Your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of Your wings. They feast on the abundance of Your house; You give them drink from Your river of delights. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light. (Psalm 36:7-9)

Those things that feel hard and scary and impossible are things that God is blessing because He sees and understands and cares about us. Jesus saw then and still sees now the blessings that are tucked inside of these difficult experiences, and He has prepared His gracious gifts for us. We may not always see them, but they are there as we anticipate His goodness.

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

Such an Awesome God