identity in Jesus

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 5:3 As Christians, we hear the word “blessed” a lot, but we tend to lose sight of its actual meaning. When we read things like “blessed are the poor in spirit,” we imagine that the term denotes goodness, righteousness, or holiness when in reality, it refers to something that seems far less spiritual. In Hebrew, the word most often translated “blessed” is asher, and in Greek, it’s makarios. Both of these can be defined as “happy,” and they infer that blessed people are living the good life. Unfortunately, long-faced religion has taught that true discipleship is not synonymous with happiness…yet perhaps this is because our view of the latter is inaccurate. When we think of being happy, we often associate it with worldly pleasures — stuff, sensuality, wealth, and achievement — rather than the state