Luke 6:20-23  Luke gives us  the teaching of Jesus...recording them here as He came down from the mount with His newly appointed apostles.  Luke directs these words towards those who were His disciples.. His students, those who believed that He was the Messiah.  As verse 47 tells us, those who heard these words had to make a choice as to what they would do.. act upon them.. or not.  Those who act upon these words, Jesus said, would not be shaken.. while those who did not, would be ruined.  These recorded words and our response to them are a matter of Life or death. 

"Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God."  Like Matthew, Luke records this foundational belief for coming to God... our own poverty, our helplessness, our destitution.. our complete inability to make ourselves worthy of His Kingdom.  We come as beggars. We are distressed and needy and can not find life for ourselves. We must look to the One who has  Power and  Grace.. The One who loves us and desires to give us all that we need.  Then we will see Him... the One who satisfies our hunger, who heals our broken hearts and returns laughter into our lives. The One who sees when we are hated and insulted and thrown away for His sake.  We see the One who gives blessings in the darkest points of our lives.. and we find that He is Good! 

How do we act upon these Words?  Whether we are brand new believers or have walked with Jesus for many years.. we must have this same foundation of faith.  We are poor beggars.. and He is the One who provides all we need.  "The Lord is my Shepherd and I shall not want."  The sheep are utterly dependent upon the shepherd for their lives.  So we are.. utterly dependent upon our God for every breath, every heartbeat, every bite of food.. for all we need.  He is a good, good Shepherd and we are in His hands.  

Does the Lord leave us when we are weeping?  No.. for He sees our tears.. and as the psalmist writes in  Psalm 56:8 "Thou hast taken account of my wanderings; put my tears in Thy bottle; and they not in Thy book?"  He turns our mourning into laughter.  "Be glad in that day and leap for joy, for behold your reward is great in heaven;" Luke 6:23

Father in heaven, help us to "act upon" these Words of life. May we trust You for all that we need, recognizing that we are poor beggars and all we have is from Your gracious Hand.  May we trust You when we enter times of mourning or times of trouble.. when we are scorned for our faith in Jesus.. or when evil surrounds us.. knowing that You see us and that You have a place prepared for us where we will find rewards that are far greater than anything we can imagine.  Thank You for hearing our cries and for restoring our souls.  Our hope is in You and we know that You will not disappoint us because You love us dearly.  May Your will be done in our lives today we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.