I recently heard a teaching by Lysa TerKeurst taken from her book Good Boundaries and Goodbyes. It was a lesson taken from Matthew 5:3-9, known as the Beatitudes, that I want to share today. Lysa shared that these verses, taken together as a whole, describe the process of healing from the hurts, woundings, and brokenness that affect our relationships and lives.

These verses are part of what’s known as the Sermon on the Mount, instructions Jesus gave to the multitudes. We can trust that Jesus understands our sorrows and suffering and has experienced the same emotions, hurts, betrayals, and overwhelming sorrows that we have. In Mark 14:34, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus tells us that His soul was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.

So let’s take a look at the stages of brokenness from Matthew 5:3-9. Verse 3a says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” This does not necessarily mean financially poor. It speaks of those who have known great sorrow and pain – emotional, physical, spiritual, relationship. This pain has caused brokenness and sorrow that is overwhelming.

Verse 4a says, “Blessed are those who mourn.” There is always grief and mourning attached to brokenness. We know how to comfort those who are mourning the death of a loved one, but there are other kinds of grieving that we don’t know how to deal with, such as the death of relationships or marriages, or the emotional grief of betrayal or broken trust.

This brokenness and mourning leads to verse 5a, “Blessed are the meek.” Meek refers to being humble, gentle, mild or kind. Crying out to God in our brokenness and grief leads to the gift of humility, which is the doorway to God’s grace. We can begin to see blessings in the pain as we humble ourselves before God.

Verse 6a says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” As we humble ourselves, we become desperate for God to enter into our pain and sorrow to help us make it through. We begin to hunger and thirst for God like never before.

Verse 7a begins to show up in our hungering and thirsting for God. “Blessed are the merciful.” We are desperate for God’s mercy and grace in our lives, and so become more merciful towards others. We become more gracious, caring and compassionate, showing there is beauty in the breaking.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Verse 8 does not mean that we are perfect, but we are drawing nearer to God and have more of a desire to see Him at work in our lives. We long to see the evidence of God’s goodness, faithfulness and presence with us, and begin looking for Him more.

Verse 9a says “Blessed are the peacemakers.”  People who have been broken and healed know how to bring peace into situations because their pain has turned into purpose. As they see others around them suffering, they are determined to bring the peace of Jesus to those who desperately need it.

As we go through the stages of brokenness that Jesus talks about in the Beatitudes, we can have God’s perspective on how He can turn our pain around and use it for good in our lives. We can move beyond the “Why, God, why?” questioning, and move into a closer relationship with the Lord. He can then use us to help bring healing to others.

Hope Ministries is a Christian counseling center, and we are here to help. If you would like to speak confidentially with someone, give us a call at 845-482-5300.