Meekness is not weakness

"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth." -Mark 5:5

Think, for a moment, about success.  What comes to mind?  A "go getter"?  A big house with a nice car in front of it?  Straight A's, scholarships, awards…we teach our kids to set their goals high and go after them, right?  Not to settle for mediocrity.  But Jesus tells us that the meek will inherit the earth.  What does this mean?  As I dug into this verse, I came to the conclusion that Jesus DOES want us to be ambitious …driven… successful!  He just wants us to do it in a meek manner.  

Christ Himself was meek.  He was humble & forgiving, full of grace and mercy!  He was also Full of passion and power! POWER brought under control.  Soooo, the meekness that Jesus is preaching about is one of humble submission.  This takes strength, friends.   The Greeks used the word praus to describe the a wild horse that has been broken. That once wild, bucking horse is now a calm and submissive. But that horse still has the same strength and passion, it is just channeled for the benefit of it's master.  See, the way I understand it, meekness is is not an extinguishing of our inner passion,  it is igniting it!  Then instead of just letting it burn freely, we channel our passions!  We channel our God-given spiritual gifts, and our Christ given Holy power to be used for His glory.   It’s not a weakening  of our passion… it is CHANNELING it…. !  And in doing so we become rich. 

  "You're blessed when you're content with JUST who you are-no more, no less.  That's the moment you find yourself proud owners of everything that can't be bought."-Matt 5:5 The Message Bible

Blessed are those that mourn

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."-Matthew 5:4

God is the ultimate Comforter.  He can turn ashes to beauty.  He promises to bring us hope and a future, even in the midst of the storm of great loss.  Have you experienced a loss so significant that your whole life seemed meaningless and hopeless?  Well, this is His promise to you: "You will be comforted!".  In essence, He says "CONGRATULATIONS... I see your great loss and I will turn your dark moment into glorious light... I will give you hope."

I have been witness to great tragedy and loss.  I have heard the echoes of a friend's desperate screams in the midst of sobs.  I heard the cries that rang of complete loss.  Held the hand of a young widow as she looked in her daughter's eyes and told her "Daddy is in heaven"... And I was there as the sun rose behind the mountain, when the shock of loss turned to raw mourning. 

Jesus says "Blessed are those who mourn"....This "empty, nothing left to give" type of mourning is what Jesus was talking about.  Do you grieve this deeply for your sin?  I ask myself if I have truly ever felt so convicted of my sin that I fell to my knees like a grieving widow.  Do we TRULY connect our sin to the death of our beautiful Savior?  When will we get to that point?... The moment the Holy Spirit convicts us in such a way that we are completely empty of self. The point where we are so distraught over our sin that we have nothing left.  When we realize that we powerless...keenly aware of our lack of control.  When we (and maybe you already are! )get to that point, then, we will have no choice BUT to surrender.  When will die to self Jesus will bring us into a spiritual maturity and we will be blessed, for we mourn.  And we will be comforted. 

Being Blessed

What does it really mean to be blessed? I dove into this question this week as I began studying Matthew 5... the Beatitudes.  So here is the scene.  Jesus was just baptized by John, publicly blessed by His Father, and we witness the  manifestation of the Trinity as the Holy Spirit descended like a dove.  After being tempted in the desert, He began His public ministry, and gave us a sort of road map to the true path of "blessedness".  Not happiness.  Blessedness... Like skim milk vs. cream.   To be blessed is to be Spiritually prosperous. "To walk righteously in joy".  To have EVERYTHING you need.  "FULLfilling" JOY-not dependent on your life circumstances, or your paycheck, or your health, or you child's successes... a deeper seated contentment.  The Hebrew translation of blessed , esher,  really got my attention.  It implies the sense of congratulations! "CONGRATULATIONS!... You are poor in spirit!"  "CONGRATULATIONS! ... You mourn."  It is an expression of approval from our God!  Why in the world would he congratulate us when we are "poor in spirit" or when we mourn??? Because He knows the rest of the story... The ending.  He knows that when there is less of us, there is more of Him.  He knows that when we mourn, our Heavenly Father will embrace us and fill us with a love and a peace that we can not humanly comprehend.  So go.  Be blessed. 

...to be continued!