Beattitudes: Blessed are the merciful

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy
Matthew 5:7

In a sense this is reaping what you sow. We receive mercy, so we are merciful to others. Psalm 18:25 says "with the merciful thou will show thyself merciful." As we forgive others their sins against us, we forgive others. The two go together.
Also as we offer mercy, or forgiveness, to others we show - maybe we even show ourselves - that we have received mercy ourselves.
It can be hard to forgive others, but there is nothing to be gained from holding a grudge or having a spirit of unforgiveness. When we do that, we do nothing but make the pain linger, we are not free yet from the hurt.
I felt things for years, but it was not until I
But I have also received mercy from God, forgiveness. It sounds so cliche to say my sins are forgiven, but think about this. In the same way that we still suffer when we hold on to bitterness when someone has wronged us, we also hold on to the pain from our own sin when we have not received forgiveness or mercy.
That is why these go together, giving and receiving mercy.
I have said the beatitudes build on each other. The person poor in spirit realizes his poverty, then mourns his condition and only then can he be comforted. From there the person is meek, recognizing his state of having been forgiven. That leads to a thirst for righteousness - which is a thirst to know more about God, not necessarily being all perfect.
And of course a natural part of all that is receiving and giving mercy to others.
Each one of them can also be seen as its own statement that stands on its own.
A word also about "blessed are." In the New Testament this word mean something like happy or well off. In good condition is the person who is poor in spirit, who mourns, etc.

A cover up exposed

The word:
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:8-9
The meaning:

By Peter Paul Ruebens. Fall of Man Wikipedia commons

Five times in this passage, verses 6-10, the writer makes a “if we say– then that” type statement, and they all expose a basic human tendency. That tendency is to try to make our selves look good, justifying ourselves to others, or even to our own selves.
If we say we have fellowship with God, but don’t act like it, we are not living out the truth, which is that God is light. If we say we are without sin, we are just deceiving ourselves, or if we say we have not sinned, we are contradicting the truth or lying.
Way back in the beginning of the bible, Adam and Eve were deceived into sinning. They were perhaps deceived, but they still had a choice. When God questioned them, Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the snake.
So our tendency is to sin, and then our tendency is to try to cover it up, blame someone else, or justify it in some way. We can deceive others, and even deceive ourselves.
But there is good news.
Instead of trying to hide the truth – or our sin – we should let it be exposed in the light. God is light and God wants to share it with us.
Verse 10 says, if we confess – or agree with God that we have sinned – then he will forgive us. Notice it says nothing about whether we deserve to be forgiven or not. He is “faithful and just” which means, he will keep his word, and since he is God, he also has the authority to do so.
And this is what God wants to do. God wants to forgive us.
The question:
Why do we try to hide our sins? What would happen if we freely confessed our sins?