In this week’s memory verse, Matthew 5:11, Jesus continues with the theme of blessings for the persecuted.

Memorize this week

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Matthew 5:11 (ESV)

What Does Revile Mean?

Revile isn’t a word we use every day (the NIV uses “insult”). What did Jesus mean when He used revile? And how can we be reviled today?

Going back to its Greek root, oneidezo, revile means to reproach, to disapprove or disgrace, to call by evil names.

Jesus was often reviled.

• He was accused by the Jews of having a demon (John 8:48).
• He was labeled insane (John 10:20).
• He was slandered on the cross by the chief priests, scribes, elders, and even robbers (Matthew 27:39-44).

Blessings in Reviling

As believers in Jesus, we, too, can be spoken about in critical ways. How do we handle it?

How did Jesus handle it?

He didn’t pass it on. When Jesus was reviled, He didn’t revile back. He left it all with God instead.

“When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.”
1 Peter 2:23

Paul encouraged the Corinthians to do likewise.

“When they call us names, we say, ‘God bless you.’ When they spread rumors about us, we put in a good word for them….”
1 Corinthians 4:12-13a, The Message

If anyone abuses us on account of Jesus, we don’t bad-mouth them back. We can ask God to bless them. Loving our enemies is difficult, but Jesus said to do it.

When we do, we, too, receive blessings. Yet another mystery of grace found in the Kingdom.

Please share your thoughts here.

This week we memorize Matthew 5:8-9. What does it mean to “see God”? Let’s find out by doing it.

Memorize this week

8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Matthew 5:8-9 (ESV)

How Do You See God?

The rewards of a pure heart? To see God.

But what does it mean to see God?

Who is the most important person you have seen in real life? From ancient Biblical times to today, it is a great honor to be called into the presence of an important person and see them face to face.

While we may not see God with our physical eyes, we are called into His presence. One key to seeing Him is to maintain an awareness of His presence.

As believers of God, we are never alone. He is always with us. How often do we remember that?

When our hearts are purely focused on Him, we can see Him in ways that are deeper than physical.

When we open our spiritual eyes to see God, we are in awe of His magnificence and His mercy and His goodness.

Let’s not turn our face away from God this week, but instead turn fully towards Him.

Notice His grace in your own life and pass along that grace to others so they, too, can “see” God through you.

More Reading

For more on Matthew 5:8, see Patti’s post, “Blessed Are the Pure in Heart for They Shall See God.”

For more on Matthew 5:9, see Jaime’s post, “Blessed Are the Peacemakers.”

Share your thoughts with our Hide His Word Facebook community.

Who is the most famous person you’ve ever met? How do you “see” God in your everyday life?

Please share your thoughts here.

What are you hungry for? Find satisfaction in showing mercy. Memorize Matthew 5:6-7 with us this week.

Memorize this week

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Matthew 5:6-7 (ESV)

Are You Hungry?

It’s not wrong to be hungry.

Hunger is often what prompts us to take action. The aroma of bacon in the kitchen can lure me out of bed in the morning. Desiring a good dinner can make me stop working so I can switch gears to food preparation.

Jesus blessed His disciples on the mountain who were hungry. Hungry for righteousness. For equity. For fairness. (As well as hungry for food!)

Seeing and experiencing the inequities of the world can prompt us to take action, too. When we see unfairness, we’re lured to step in. When we want to right the wrongs we’ve done, we switch gears to God’s plans.

Making wrong things right brings satisfaction.

We don’t do it on our own. God ultimately makes it happen. But He wants us to work with Him on it. He wants us to crave it, to recognize our need for it.

Together, we find the blessing.

As we memorize Matthew 5:6-7 this week, stay alert to your own desires for decency and truth and goodness. Live honorably. Do right. Be merciful.

You will be blessed. Jesus says so.

Read more here:

• Are You Hungry for Righteousness?
• Blessed Are the Merciful

What are you hungry for in this season? Please share your thoughts here.

This week we memorize the second and third beatitudes in Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount.

Memorize this week

4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Matthew 5:4-5 (ESV)

Mourning

In Matthew 5:4-5, Jesus flips our traditional views of strength. Culture then and now may depict strength as the strong, silent type who shows no emotion, but the ones who mourn are the blessed ones.

We discussed “How Is Your Mourning Blessed?” here last week.

Read the verses before and after the following verses for extra context on how God wants to bless those who mourn.

• Isaiah 61:1
• Luke 4:18
• Matthew 11:5

Meekness

Who are the meek (v5)? We can count Moses as meek (Numbers 12:3). And of course Jesus is the ultimate example of meekness (Matthew 11:29).

Meekness is not weakness. Robertson’s Word Pictures explains meekness as “the gentleness of strength.” It takes a strong person to not be easily provoked to anger, to treat all people with kindness, and to not envy the gifts of others. Meekness is a valuable virtue.

Count your blessings this week in the odd places of mourning and through meekness. In Christ’s kingdom, all good things are possible.

Please share your thoughts here.

Read all the blog posts here on memorizing Matthew 5:1-19.

This week we begin memorizing the first beatitude of the eight beatitudes. (Although scholars debate how many beatitudes there are—seven, eight, nine, or ten, depending on how you count them—we’re going with eight.)

“The poor in spirit are blessed as a result of the kingdom of God being available to them in their spiritual poverty.” 
– Dallas Willard

Memorize this week

2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:2-3 (ESV)

How do you define “poor in spirit”?

We can’t say for certain what Jesus meant, but it certainly includes a measure of humility.

As you say these words to yourself over and over this week, reflect on your own levels of humility versus pride.

• How often are you aware of Christ refilling you?
• Are you more self-sufficient than you are Christ-dependent?
• Do you accept God’s grace as a regular staple in your spiritual diet?

Regardless of how you view your poverty, be grateful for what comes with it: “the kingdom of heaven.”

You don’t earn the kingdom through humility. You become humble through your relationship with Jesus. The kingdom is available to you through Him.

Kingdom life is a gift you receive both now and later.

Beatitudes Poem

If you’d like a visual reminder, here’s a poem to remember the Beatitudes using parts of the body.

Start from your head and work down to your feet.

Read more here on The Beautiful Beatitudes.

What does “poor in spirit” mean to you? Please share your thoughts here.

The first disciples had no idea what they were about to hear. Do we? What will we learn from Jesus’s words in Matthew 5?

Welcome to Week 1 of our Scripture Memory Challenge!

We’re breaking our challenge into three sections:

• Matthew 5:1-10, six weeks (April 2-May 13)
• Matthew 5:11-16, six weeks (May 21-Jul 1)
• Matthew 5:17-19, three weeks (Jul 9-Jul 29)

Today, April 2, begins the first section.  It includes the Beatitudes, the statements of blessedness that Jesus spoke over the crowd, “Blessed are….”

Read the text here. Read it often. We’ll stay here for 6 weeks.

Although this section is the longest of the three—we’ll learn 10 verses—it’s also likely the most familiar. I pray we’ll be amazed at how easily these verses will stick in our memories.

And more so, be amazed at how they’ll work themselves into our hearts, and out through our actions.

Memorize This Week

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
Matthew 5:1 (ESV)

This verse shows that the crowds wanted to hear what Jesus had to say.

• Maybe some were looking for His leadership to take over the physical government.
• Others may have suspected He could be the Messiah and they wanted a healing.
• Others may have just been curious about the hoopla surrounding Him and wanted to see for themselves.

But whatever their reason for coming, Jesus saw each of them. On this hill or mountain near the ancient site of Capernaum, Jesus sat down (as was the custom of the Jews) and He gave them His full attention with a deep message.

What did they learn from His words? What will you learn? Let’s begin this journey!

Have You Signed Up?

If you haven’t signed up yet for our emails, please sign up now. You will receive a short email reminder of the verse each Monday, its first letters, and additional thoughts and actions to consider. Join the Hide His Word Facebook group for more community as we learn the verses.

Here at the blog we’ll also be sharing about the Beatitudes during the month of April. We hope you’ll share your own insights as well.

Please share your thoughts here.

Will you be memorizing Matthew 5:1-19 with us? We’ll begin Monday, April 2, 2018.

You still have time to sign up.

We’ll be here to help as you memorize Matthew 5:1-19.

• We have cards and journals ready for you to print after you register.
• We’ll send you a short email each Monday morning reminding you of the verse of the week.
• We have our Hide His Word Facebook group eager to keep you encouraged.

This text begins with Jesus going up a mountain to talk to His followers. He had so much to tell them, many things which would turn their world upside down.

And even though we may have heard many of these sayings over and over, Jesus’s words still have the potential to turn our worlds upside down, too.

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

~ ~ ~

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Matthew 5:9

~ ~ ~

You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Matthew 5:14

We’ll sit with these words April through July. Learning only one to two verses a week, we’ll have time to let them really sink into our hearts.

• Slowly.
• Intentionally.
• Deeply.

Jesus still speaks to us today. May we be listening for His voice.

Sign up here.

NOTE: Registration is now closed as of July 2018

Moving Too Fast?

As we head into spring and summer, the pace of life can pick up. End-of-school activities are scheduled; vacations are to be taken; warmer weather invites us outside more often.

Who has time for scripture?

Sure, we may grab a quick devotional or read our daily chapter. But too often we speed through, just to call it done.

When we rush through the words, we don’t give the Word much opportunity to stick around. We miss out on the life-changing attitudes and teachings that Jesus longs to give us.

Slow Down with Matthew 5

Two years ago with picked up in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount. We memorized Matthew 6 together. We lingered in the verses and hopefully still feel the effects of Jesus’s words to stay humble, to pray like Jesus taught, and to seek first God’s kingdom.

Now we’re going back to the beginning.

We invite you to slow down with us for a new Bible memorization challenge.

We’re going to sit this spring and summer with the red-letter words in Matthew 5:1-19, the beginning of Jesus’s famous sermon to the crowds on the mountain. And His sermon to us.

By learning 1-2 verses a week, we’re going to let Jesus’s sayings seep deeper inside of us. We’ll learn what it means to find true happiness, to be light in the world, to accept Christ’s complete fulfillment of the Law.

Join Us

When you sign up, we’ll send you the link to our packet of printables.

You can download and print scripture cards, 1^st letter sheets, journal pages, and more. We’ll also send you a short email once a week during the months of the challenge to help you stay on track.

Below is our official schedule.

We’ll start on Monday, April 2, the day after Easter. We’ll take two scheduled breaks: the week of May 14 and the week of July 4. And we’ll finish the last week of July, before school starts again.

We hope you’ll take this journey with us.

Together we can renew our appreciation for Jesus’s simple teachings in our complicated times. We can gain clarity on who He really is. And we can view a truer picture of who He means us to be.

Would you help us spread the word to your friends?