Why should we pray? We should pray because God is sovereign! If God is not sovereign then there is no use in praying. Because God is sovereign, we as the people of God should pray earnestly about everything. God in His sovereignty has predestined the end, but He has also predestined the means by which the end is accomplished. Which is prayer!

The doctrine of the preservation of the saints is the most comforting of all. Without this doctrine there is no peace, no assurance, no comfort in salvation at all. God is not just able to save the sinners, He is also able to keep them to the end. That gives us, as Christians comfort and peace.

As Christians, we are not free from obeying the law. Jesus summarize the 10 Commandments in the Great Commandment, "love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, mind and soul," and the second one is like it, "love your neighbor as yourself."  As we Christians, seek to honor Christ and walk in his ways, we are doing what he was doing, which is keeping the law of God.

As Christians, what role does the Old Testament or the laws that God had in the OT play in our lives? That is a question that many Christians struggle with. In these verses we hear Jesus's opinion of the OT and in that we learn what our opinion should be of the OT and how it applies to our life.

How should faithful Christians live in the world? Should they hiding, or should they be live among ungodly people? Jesus says: "you are the light of the world." You cannot hide a city on a hill, and you don't like the lamp and put it under a basket. Nor can we exclude ourselves from non-Christians. Our task and responsibility as Christians, is to be salt and light among people who don't know God.

Jesus says, "you are the salt of the earth." That is not a command but rather a statement of fact. He also makes the point, that just like salt can lose its usefulness by being polluted, we as Christians can lose our effectiveness by being polluted by the things of this world.

According to Jesus, we should be more concerned if we do not face any persecution for the sake of Christ, then if we do face persecution. The beatitudes were meant to be lived out by every believer, and when we do that the inevitable response from the ungodly and nominal Christians will be ridicule and persecution.

Each and every Christian is called to follow the example of Jesus Christ in being a peacemaker. Jesus came to make peace between us and God, and now sends us to be ambassadors on God's behalf to reconcile others to God as well. And as Christians we are to be intentional to live at peace with one another.