Shortly before Matthew 5, it's important to understand that Christ had just fasted for forty days and nights. While he was fasting, (Matthew 4,) the devil came and tried to make him question his worth. Satan tried to make him give up who he was for temporal glory. No matter what Satan did, Christ kept basically telling him that he knew his worth. I think this shows a lot when we consider that the next thing that Christ did was teach the multitude about their own worth. He says that they who persevere can get through anything. The Sermon on the Mount is powerful, and it's important to understand who we are and how much God loves us.
My favorite scripture in the Sermon on the Mount is "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake." (Matthew 5:11) Christ foreshadows the suffering he will go through and says that we will be blessed if we go through it with the best of our abilities. Christ knew that we would be tortured for following Him because of how much he was tortured. The pioneers of Joseph Smith's time were constantly going through persecution. Joseph Smith even got thrown in jail because he followed Christ and was speaking on behalf of God. Because I know we are to be blessed if we follow no matter what, it gives me more courage to stand up for what I believe in.
I'm grateful for this church because it gives credit to all those who are trying their hardest to be the best that they can. This is truly a gospel of sinners who keep on trying. I'm thankful for the opportunity that I have each week to study these standard works and our modern-day revelation. If we didn't have these things to freely study, we couldn't learn or progress in spiritual matters.
This week I was at home sick with the stomach flu. My husband was sick too, and he was really depressed as well. We both felt like failures because we had gotten sick and still had so much left to accomplish this week, but we tried our hardest to make the best of it. Every time one of us threw up, the other person would go dump their throw up in the toilet; if they made it into the toilet, we would go into the bathroom with them to rub their back and tell them it was going to be okay. One night, my husband was feeling really bad and so after we finished our family scripture study, I got out his patriarchal blessing and read it to him. I was reminded of how special my husband really is. Both of us were reminded as to how much we love each other, and more importantly, how much God loves us.
To sum up, our worth is great. We may feel like failures sometimes and like we're not good enough to meet or deserve Christ's Atonement, but that's okay. When we know what we are worth to our Father in Heaven, it's a lot easier to avoid temptation. Of all his creations upon the Earth, he decided to create us last. Life was incomplete and meaningless without us, just like life is meaningless and incomplete without a Father in Heaven to guide us.
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