Daily Bible Reading Plans to help you read and understand God’s Word

Scripture Reading: Matthew 4:23-25, Matthew 5:1-12, 1 Samuel 2:6-10, Isaiah 61:1-3

I grew up near the coast, so there are few things I love as much as an early morning on the beach. Yet only now that I’ve moved away am I struck each time I stand on the shoreline and take in the morning sun glittering across the water. How could I have forgotten the breathtaking beauty of a cloudless June morning?

Do you have something in your life that has become routine and familiar over time? If I’m being honest, this can happen when I come to Scripture. If we’ve made opening our Bibles a regular practice, over time we can begin to passively read passages that would have left the first hearers confounded, stunned, or overcome.

One of the practices that helps me as I read and hear familiar words—especially those from Jesus—is to engage all five senses and even a little imagination. Who was in the audience? What were they feeling? What had they experienced prior to this? What was the environment like? What might the sights and sounds have been? These kinds of questions can help us to be better readers of ancient texts that were not written to us but are indeed for us.

I found this helpful as I began studying the Beatitudes again—a familiar passage from the opening of Jesus’s longest and most famous sermon. I thought about the people sitting and learning on the mountainside that day, especially Jesus's closest disciples. Was it hot and dusty? Were they weary from the good and hard work of ministering alongside Jesus? What kinds of loss had they each experienced? What miracles had they witnessed? What was it like to literally sit down with the rabbi Jesus and have Him turn the belief system of their world upside down?

I don’t know the answers to most of these questions, but I invite you to consider them still. (And I wish we could share a cup of coffee so I could hear your questions too!) As we study this passage—inviting the Holy Spirit to illuminate all our senses and wonder—we are reminded that Jesus didn’t deliver these words of wisdom and blessing to a nameless, faceless crowd. They were given so that men and women of every age and station and background would know that in His kingdom, He redefines what it means to be blessed. From the promise that the persecuted will receive the kingdom to the declaration that the humble will inherit the earth, Jesus's kingdom blessings brought radical hope. Like standing on the coastline at sunrise, the Beatitudes remind me of the beauty of the gospel and fill me with awe once again.

The good news is that these words are as true for us today as they were for the first hearers and followers. God’s kingdom blessings are still extended to those who feel weary, forgotten, parched, empty, or full of sorrow. Wherever you are today, you’re invited to sit and meditate on these words from our Savior who delights in pouring out on us the blessings of His kingdom.

Written by Lindsey Jacobi