So today the 2nd and the 3rd beatitudes were spoken about. So we'll go through them in order.
The 2nd beatitudes is "Great are those who mourn, for they will be comforted" - Matthew 5:4.
Now here is where it gets interesting, the word mourn is used in the sense of grieving over the dead, or rather being sorrowful for the way things are. So the question is what makes us sad? Obvious answers to sound like real people are injustice, abuse, immorality and violence but the first thing that crossed my mind was the sin still inside me and that's where the challenge lies in this beatitude, not to just be sorrowful for the sins that are global but to also mourn for the sins we commit, whether in thought, speech or deed. Since when we reach that point of utter, deep sorrow for our sins God comforts us. It is when we are in that desolate place that we are driven into the arms of our Creator and He is there for us. See I am constantly hearing that we should not be afraid of our sin and let it control us because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross but we take that too far sometimes and so start to feel less towards the fact we are sinning. Yet we shouldn't be in fact every sin we commit should shake our world and we should really be sorrowful for each one we commit. Now I'll be the first to put my hand up and say "That's really difficult" and it is but since when was following Jesus going to be easy? Jesus himself gave us an example of this sorrow during Holy Week, He was filled with sorrow in Gethsemane as He came to recognize the sins of the world resting on His shoulder and He was in mourning for each and every one of them. Jesus has been throw the same sorrow we should be going through and He knows what it means, but what we need to ask ourselves and challenge ourselves with is whether or not we'll allow the Holy Spirit to show us our sin again.
The 3rd beatitude is this "Great are the meek, for they will inherit the earth" -Matthew 5:5
Meek does not mean weak or not brave, in fact it is more along the lines of not arrogant but the word meek in the original text has a close meaning to the "broken" as in "broken in." This means it is more in line with us channeling our strength for someone other than ourselves, parallels with a broken in horse. For us as Christians that person is Jesus. Our strength should be channeled solely for Jesus Christ's agenda. In fact one could say that to be meek we must be strong, we are strong because to determinedly seek out and act on somebody else's agenda means disregarding our own desires and following theirs. Yet if we can truly submit to God and follow His agenda, if we can be meek and follow Christ then we have such a high place in the Kingdom. This doesn't mean that we should be meek in order to achieve that high place, because that would be adhering to our own agenda but in fact we should be meek in order to align ourselves with God's will more. If you want an example of someone who is truly meek then look no further than Mother Teresa, she gave up her own life to minister God's will to the poor and because of the fact she followed what God wanted she had an amazing life!
If you want to look further then look at Jesus, He prayed that God's will be done not his. In fact He taught us to pray that God's will be done on earth, check the Lord's prayer if you don't believe me, but a lot of us have started to lose that meaning in our own personal relationship with Him. We want to see God come to earth and have a relationship with everyone but we sometimes don't want to be the person who'll share Him with others and so let other's do it instead. We don't submit to that will within our personal lives. So I encourage and challenge you to pray the Lord's prayer with new meaning, with fresh intention and with your heart.
So be mournful and meek, but don't just feel mournful and meek but do something about it. To use a common place phrase "walk the walk, don't just talk the talk." Wear the shoes God has given you and stride out in them, don't stand still afraid of that first step.
God Bless
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