Meekness Not Weakness

Matthew 5:5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

Meek:  1. Patient, long-suffering, or submissive in disposition of nature; humble

www.thefree dictionary.com/meek

When I think of meekness and inheriting the earth one woman in the Bible immediately comes to my mind.  That women would be Ruth.  After her husband and father-in-law died she left her homeland and went with her mother-in-law, Naomi, to a foreign land.  We see that even though Ruth was meek she was also a very determined young woman and had her mind set on what she needed to do.  Sometimes I think people mistake meekness for weakness but it is quite the opposite.  Let’s look at Ruth and see what I mean by this statement.  In Ruth 1, Naomi decides to go back to her homeland after her husband and sons died.  At this point she had two daughter-in-laws both said they would go with Naomi.  I don’t know what prompted Naomi to tell her daughter-in-laws to return to their homes but she urged them to not go with her.  She may have thought it would have been more of a burden than a blessing to have them with her as she could not provide another son for them.  Ruth’s sister-in-law did as she was instructed by Naomi and returned to her family but Ruth had a different reply. 

Ruth 1:16-17 “But Ruth replied, ‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you.  Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.  Your people will be my people and your God my God.  (17)Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.  May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.’”

This does not sound much like a meek woman does it?  This sounds like a determined women and Naomi recognized this, verse 18 “When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.”

So, let’s not mistake meekness for weakness bur rather with strength because meekness is humbling ourselves and it takes strength to humble ourselves. Ruth went with Naomi and by doing this she humbled herself to her mother-in-laws way of life.  She believed in her God and she followed her ways. 

This story continues into a beautiful love story when Ruth humbled herself once again by sleeping at the feet of her master Boaz who gave her mercy.  In Ruth 3 we find the beautiful story and I would urge you to read it.  I will recap:

Ruth went to the threshing floor where Boaz was sleeping and lay at his feet (meekness).  When he stirred he asked who was there and Ruth replied, “I am your servant Ruth.” (Ruth 3:9).  And then, she made a request of Boaz, continuing in Ruth 9, “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a kinsman-redeemer.” (courage/determination)  His reply in verse 10, “The LORD bless you, my daughter,” he replied.  “This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier:  You have not run after the younger me, whether rich or poor. (meekness)  (11) And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid.  I will do for you all you ask.  All my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of noble character.”

As the story turns out, Boaz marries Ruth and the thus the beginning of the lineage of David in which Jesus Christ was born.  Wow, a woman displayed meekness and became a part of the lineage of Jesus. 

When we humble ourselves to our Lord and become meek before Him, we will be blessed beyond measure.  We can then say, as in Hebrews 13:6 “So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.  What can man do to me?’”  Seek Him with all your heart and humble yourselves at His feet as Ruth humbled herself at Boaz feet and find favor with God.

Seeking Him with all my heart,

Sheila

Humility through Humantiy

One of the words used to describe God in one of the blogger comments was “humble”.  That was interesting to me because when I think of humble, I think of what I should be towards God but this word was used to describe God.  As I thought about that I was began to think about Jesus, because He humbled Himself by coming in the form of man in order to relate to man and to sacrifice Himself for us.  There is no better example of the word humble than that.  So today I would like for us to focus on the humility of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Hebrews 2:10 “In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering  (11)Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family.  So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.  (12) He says, ‘I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises.’ (13)And again, ‘I will put my trust in Him.’ And again He says, ‘Here am I, and the children God has given me.’ (14) Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in the humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—(15)and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.  (16)For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that He might make atonement for the sins of the people.  (18)Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.”

Have you ever heard someone who has been appointed to a high office say, “It was so humbling to get called to serve”?  I have never really quite figured that out.  They have been asked by the president of the United States to serve, they have been put on a high pedestal and they call that humbling.  I don’t think the call to service is what humbled them but the path they may have taken to get there could have been what was humbling.  Perfection does not come naturally and none of us are perfect but Christ demonstrated perfection through His suffering and we too can become perfect through our suffering if we keep the faith.  Hebrews 3:14 “We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.”

Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior who was appointed to come to this earth and take that path of humanity and through humility He is able to help us when we are tempted because He was tempted (verse  8).  He knows how we feel because He humbled Himself to the low point of flesh and blood and was tempted just as you are tempted.  Even though He had all the power at His hand He gave that up to understand us.   

In chapter 3 we are told because of what Jesus has done for us, because of His humility, we should fix our thoughts on Him (vs. 1).  Hebrews 3:1-6 “Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.  He was faithful to the one who appointed Him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house.  (3) Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself.  (4)For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.  (5) Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future. (6)But Christ is faithful as a Son over God’s house.  And we are His house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.”

Just as Christ humbled Himself, we too must humble ourselves before our Lord and Savior.  We must remember that He is the one in control and we are His servants. 

As I was writing this blog today a fly was buzzing around me.  I was having a hard time concentrating and I just cried out in frustration and asked the Lord to get rid of it because it was bothering me.  As I raised my hands, I touched the fly with the tip of my finger and it disappeared for awhile.  I was thanking the Lord for getting rid of it and about the time I was finished writing it came back and I said, “in the name of JESUS get out of here” and it disappeared again.  As I was writing this paragraph it came back again and I tried to slap it but slapped myself instead.  Why do I tell you this story about the fly while writing about being humble? The fly demonstrated to me that God is in control.  That I need to always become meek in order to give Him all the glory and power that is due Him.  We can not do anything with our own strength, we may only slap ourselves,  but it is through the strength and power of our Lord that we can overcome. 

Dear Heavenly Father, I humble myself before your throne today and thank you for your guidance in this life that I know live.  In my suffering in this world, may I always be faithful to follow you as you were faithful to complete your mission upon this earth, the one that came to this earth to show me the way, to give me a way to the Heavenly Father.  I thank you for coming here and humbling yourself to the point of death on the cross in order to give me a passage way to the Father.  I thank you for being my high priest.  I thank you too for the little things in life, like taking the distraction of a fly away from me in order that I could concentrate on Your Word.  I ask you Lord to use these words to help others see how wonderful you are, to help others realize they need to humble themselves at Your feet that all glory and honor that is due you be given.

In Jesus precious and holy name I pray, Amen.

Humble yourselves today, step into the shoes of someone else, try to view the world they way they see it and seek Him with all your heart in order to be blessed by Him.

Seeking Him with all my heart,

Sheila

Rules

Rules, rules were made for a reason. Have you ever heard that? Have you always liked hearing that? Maybe you have said it a time or two yourself. Have you ever broken those rules? Have you always agreed with the rule maker? When was the last time you complained about rules? Maybe when you were driving down the highway and wanting to get somewhere a little faster than the rules said you could get there? Maybe when someone changed the rules mid-stream and caught you off guard? Have you ever been accused of bending the rules? What exactly does that mean? Driving 66 in a 65 would that be bending the rules?

When was the first rule broken? If you said in Genesis, you are correct. Adam was instructed by God to not eat of the tree in the middle of the Garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:9 and 16-17). The scripture goes on to say that God then decided to make a helper for Adam which He did and her name was Eve. Now I am sure that Adam must have instructed her not to even touch the tree as you see she is talking with the serpent who is tempting her in Genesis 3:3b “and you must not touch it, or you will die.” I figure that Adam had probably decided that he should tell her not to touch it because if she did touch it she would want to eat it. Back to children, have you ever told one not to even go near the cookie jar? Don’t touch it or you will be tempted to eat? Maybe you have told yourself that. Anyway, she touched and noting happened so she took it to Adam and served it to him and he, knowing what God had told him ate it anyway. Even in a perfect world, the Garden of Eden, there was a rule, and even in that setting, the one and only rule was broken and so mankind was broken.

Since the beginning of time there were rules. Rules help us maintain order, they are there for a reason and sometimes the reason is very good and other times the reasons are selfish and unrighteous but what does God say about the rulers placed before us. Looking in Nehemiah 9:37 - 38 we discover that God placed rulers over the Israelites and that these Kings gathered an abundant harvest due to the sins of the Israelites. In verse 34 it says “Our kings, our leaders, our priests and our fathers did not follow your law; they did not pay attention to your commands or the warnings you gave them. Even while they were in their kingdom, enjoying your great goodness to them in the spacious and fertile land you gave them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil ways.” All of this while the Israelites are enslaved. Why do you think God blessed those who were against Him? It is rather simple but complex. Verse 37 says it was because of the sins of the Israelites. God wanted to draw them back to Himself but He first had do show them where they were wrong. It doesn’t seem fair that others are reaping the goodness of God when His chosen people are suffering but that is exactly what was happening. All of this in order to bring them back to Him and it did change their hearts. Their sin was revealed and they made an oath to follow the Laws of God (verse 29) which didn’t last as long as it should have. Have you made a promise to God that didn’t last long? They did have a leader though in Nehemiah who called them on their shortcomings, you can read about that in Nehemiah 13.

At this time our country is struggling. Everyone is blaming the other person, we all seem to think we have the right answer and know just what we need to do. God’s word tells us exactly what we should do, it can be found in II Chronicles 7:14 “if My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and will heal their land.” Although this was originally written for the Israelites we need to remember that we are His people now too. If you are called by His Name you are His. Our country is going rapidly downhill because we are not humbling ourselves, we are not seeking His face, we, not as a country but as followers of Christ. If we can’t even humble ourselves within our churches how do we expect that God will heal our land? If we don’t take the time to seek His face why do we expect Him to take care of our country? What are our sins that are causing our county to go in a spiral downhill? I trust you will seek Him and find Him and will humble yourselves and pray because He will forgive our sins and heal our land.


Seeking Him with all my heart,
Sheila