The meek shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5
Jesus had some strange teachings. At least they are strange to the normal way of thinking. The world teaches us that to get ahead we have to be all we can be. We have to look out for ourselves because no one else is going to look our for us. Some would go so far as to say that we must step on others or be stepped on. Jesus taught the complete opposite of this. He taught that meekness (humility) was the way to great riches. In fact, he went so far as to say that they the meek would be given the earth as an inheritance.
Most find this concept hard to grasp because we tend to think of meekness as weakness. Meekness is not so much weakness as it is gentleness. It is having great power yet knowing how to control it. This is the picture of Jesus. The same man who could walk on the sea and calm storms also took children in his lap and healed them.
Judith Bentley, a schoolteacher who did mission work in the former USSR tells about a man who had confused weakness with meekness. She had been teaching an educational seminar and at the end she opened it up for questions. The man asked this question: In teaching our children to be like Jesus are we not teaching them to be weak? In the end, will we all be crucified as he was? I find part of her answer to be very relevant. She said, " Your question implies that Jesus was a weak person. I have always tried to follow Jesus' teachings and to be like him and I have never thought of myself as a weak person."
I can identify with Judith. I have always strived to be like Jesus though naturally I have a long way to go. I want it to be said of me, as it was of the apostles, that I have been with Jesus. This means that sometimes I will have to choose to do something he asks me to do even if it does not fit with what I wanted to do. I have to give my will to another. But in doing so I gain far more than I will ever give up. And who knows? One day I just might inherit the earth.
Prayerfully,
Sullivan Jones
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