Are You Blessed?

"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Matthew 5:11-12 (NIV)

Are you blessed? Maybe we need to redefine that word. We use it so casually to mean an abundance of good gifts from God--things like health, wealth, protection, answered prayer. But Jesus is clearly talking about a different kind of blessing in Matthew 5--one that many of us would prefer to avoid. How can we be blessed when we are persecuted, insulted, and falsely accused? We are blessed because we share in the sufferings of Christ--we get to experience the kind of fellowship with Him that can only come through the shared experience of suffering. It means that we are looking more and more like Jesus, that we are experiencing the same treatment He and the prophets received when they walked on the earth. What is wrong with us that we would prefer to blend in with the world rather than be singled out for living like Jesus? Isn't He worth it? We are told to "rejoice and be glad" when these "bad" things happen. There is a world full of lost people that need to know that Jesus is worth it--no matter what the cost. Do we believe that? Until we do, we are not living a life that He considers "blessed".