Matthew 5:3-12

3‘Happy are the people who know that they need God very much. The kingdom of heaven belongs to people like that.

4Happy are the people who are sad now. God will come near to help them.

5Happy are the people who are kind. The whole earth will belong to them.

6Happy are the people who want to obey God, as much as they want to eat food. God will give to them everything that they need.

7Happy are the people who help other people and who forgive them. God will forgive people like that.

8Happy are the people who have only good thoughts. They will come near to God and see him.

9Happy are the people who bring people together to be friends. God will call them his children.

10Happy are the people who do what is right but other people hurt them because of it. The kingdom of heaven belongs to people like that.

11Yes, happy are you when people say bad things against you because you believe in me. Or they may hurt you. Or they may say things about you that are not true.

12God is preparing many good things for you in heaven. So you should be very happy when people do these bad things to any of you. People did these same things to God's prophets who lived long ago.’