The Kingdom of God Part 5

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth

The Beatitudes are the inner abilities and character we express living in the Kingdom of God.

We continue our study with the next 4 beatitudes in Matthew 5

v5 Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Meekness is not weakness. Meekness incorporates strength and gentleness and includes humility (paradox). It is the branch that bears most fruit that bows the lowest on the tree. Humility is to see your true standing before God. To recognise His power and majesty (the surpassing beauty of holiness) and yet at the same time to realise his great love for you. In meekness we stop telling God how to do it and submit to His will. We then enter His strength and ability, as we become lesser in our own eyes, so He becomes greater and brings all his abilities into the situation. Meekness with humility removes paralysing fear from us and produces courage in us to go and possess the land, to begin to fulfil all our destiny in Christ. We no longer try to do things in our own strength.

The picture here is that of a broken-in stallion with tremendous strength but fully under control of the rider.

v6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Now that we are no longer bound in fear or in self-sufficiency (due to meekness with humility) we can ask God to fill us with a hunger and thirst for His things. Having confessed and turned from our sins and admitted our inadequacy before Him He is ready to create these desires in our heart:

To hunger for...

• The Word of God • opportunities to minister • opportunities to serve

To thirst for

• His presence • His Spirit • His power in revival

No more yesterday’s manna but hungering and thirsting for a freshness each day with God.             

We begin to long for the things that God longs for. Amen

v7 Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. The Lord is our Shepherd and He leads us on into the area of forgiveness. He showed us how it is done and now expects us to give it in the same way. We must show that same mercy to others especially the poor! In everyday terms this means dealing with offences, resentments, and even full-blown hate. Hurt produces anger and then resentment manifesting in grudges and thought and/or acts of hatred. Mercy costs us the sinful fleshly pleasure of revenge.

The seeds of resentment will produce a bitter harvest in our lives.

Resentment is like an addictive drug...

We must sow mercy and forgiveness and then the world will see Christ in us because it knows the thrill of revenge.

v8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

We must lift clean hands to God flowing out from a pure heart. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks! Create in me a clean heart Of God. We must purify our hearts by washing with the Word of God, which is sharper than a two-edged sword' piercing even to the division of the soul and spirit, joints, and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4 v12.).

We need to bring all our ugliness, prejudices, mental barriers and even our very motives to God having the removed and replaced by that which is truth. As our hearts are purified so the desire to see God grows. The Lord can only be revealed to those whose hearts are pure as only they have the correct motives and perspective to see Him. To see His hand, the finger of God moving, to see His Modus Operandi to see His motive is always Love. As we allow our hearts to be purified our motives will become godly and will see God in others, in situations in our own lives and of course eventually we will see Him face to face.

Amen

Personal Prayer

In our final Part (6/6) we consider the last 4 beatitudes and then look at the stepwise progression of the Beatitudes.