Misty Dawn

How can an intense desire for righteousness put you at odd with the world? To truly hunger and thirst for righteousness we must completely forsake the worlds version and ideals of self satisfaction (gratification), success and happiness. We must first seek out God and His kingdom. By doing so, you will be ridiculed and mocked by the non believers in the world. What sort of righteouness is Jesus talking about? The righteousness that comes from Jesus and walking in his word; the desire to do what is right without compromise. What promise are we given in this Beatitude? We are promised that we will receive righteousness, but we must have a true change of heart in order to receive and true desire and thirst for it.

How does this sort of gentleness contrast with the world's ideal? The world's ideal is that self assertion is good -- modern media and modern education encourage you to be pushy, aggressive and that in order to be truly happy we must maginify ourself to be big and important as possible. This is the complete opposite of meekness, which means "the reluctance to assert oneself. How is humility important to Christlikeness? Jesus Christ was the perfect example of true meekness and humility. Our goal as Christians is to become more like Jesus and less like the world. In order to accomplish this we must humble ouselves before the world and not be proud and haughty.

Why is it necessary to be aware of your spiritual poverty before you can become a Christian? If we aren't aware of our own spriritual poverty, then we will not yearn for God or desire to seek out His word and we will continue living in the same life pattern. What kind of mourning is necessary for a person to become a Christian? We first must mourn our own unrighteousness and wrong doings, then seek Gods forgiveness and mercy for our own sins. What kind of mourning is a common experience of Christians? The mourning that is a common experience of Christians is that we mourn for the degradation and unrighteousness and injustice around us. We also mourn for the souls that are not saved.