Burunche’s Blog

JANUARY 30, 2020    DO WE NEED THE OLD TESTAMENT? IS IT IMPORTANT?

Matthew 5:17-18 “Do not think that I have come to do away with or undo the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to do away with or undo but to complete and fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until the sky and earth pass away and perish, not one smallest letter nor one little hook [identifying certain Hebrew letters] will pass from the Law until all things [it foreshadows] are accomplished.”

Within the Christian community, there are some people who will contend that since Jesus has come, we no longer need the Old Testament, that it is useless and should be ignored. Yet, Jesus Himself gave the lie to this line of thinking! Jesus came to fulfill the Law and the prophets, not to abolish those writings; therefore, we should study them very carefully.

In Numbers 23: 19 God gave the pagan prophet Balaam a warning for all of us: “God is not a man, that He should tell or act a lie, neither the son of man, that He should feel repentance or compunction for what He has promised. Has He said and shall He not do it? Or has He spoken and shall He not make it good?”

God is sovereign. Unlike worldly leaders who go back on their words and try to do damage control after the fact, God is never sorry for what He has said because He got it right the first time. The Bible was not written by chance nor was it assembled by a group of ignorant people sitting in a back room somewhere. The scholars who assembled the King James Bible were phenomenal men of great linguistic ability as well as men of great faith. More recent translations have also been done by people of great learning and great faith. If we believe that God can guide us, why are we unwilling to believe that God guided those who came before us?

One of the exciting things about studying the Old Testament is realizing what wonderful preparation God the Father made for sending His Son to us. Proverbs 30:5 says, “Every word of God is tried and purified(true); He is a shield to those who trust and take refuge in Him.” Even Balaam predicted the coming of the Messiah in Numbers 24:17 “I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but He is not near. A Star shall come forth out of Jacob , and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel and shall crush all the corners of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth.”

Jesus was the fulfilling of the Law, and no prophecy about Him was left unfulfilled. Today as we read our Bibles, we should study the Old Testament as thoroughly as we do the New Testament; failing to do so would be as foolish as attempting to build a house without first laying a foundation. PRAYER: Father, thank you for your Word! Help us to study it, to engrave it on our hearts, and to meditate on it. And let your Word become precious to us. In the mighty Name of Jesus. Amen.

Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 14 Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a peck measure, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.”

Many years ago, an Assemblies of God missionary named Homer Goodwin came into the Bawku area of northeastern Ghana with his wife and two small children. Selecting a site for a mission house in the village of Missiga, just outside Bawku, Homer began building his house; meanwhile, his family was staying at a government rest house in a town 10 miles away. Most of the time, Homer stayed in a tent close to the construction site at night, but one night he decided to return to see his family. The next day when Homer returned to Missiga, a local farmer came to him to complain. It seems that this man had gotten in the habit of staying past dark working on his farm because he knew that if he just looked up the hill, he would see the light from Homer’s small camp and he could use that light as a means of finding his way back to his home. But the night that Homer left to be with his family, this man had no beacon to guide him, no means of telling directions, and in the pitch – dark African night, he lost his way and had to sleep in the bush all night. Now, Homer didn’t know this man, nor had he ever met him. But unbeknownst to Homer, this man had been using Homer’s light as a guide to show him which way to go.

We never know when someone is watching us to see how we will behave! That’s a scary thought because most of us have times when our light shines brightly and times when we give practically no light at all. When we lived in Kumasi in the late 1980’s, sometimes our electricity would sag to such an extent that the incandescent bulb in our bathing room had barely as much light as a candle. But there is one person whose light gleams with a constant brightness, Jesus. Jesus said of himself in John 8:12 “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” We know that by ourselves there is very little light and that we can fail. But Jesus never fails. Today let us follow Him who is the Light of the World!

PRAYER: Father, today we are afraid that people might be looking at us at a time when our lights will fail. But Lord, you are the Giver of light and life. Come into our hearts. Drive away the darkness! And fill us with your light so that we will be able to share that light with others. In the mighty Name of Jesus. Amen.

Matthew 5: 13-16 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste (its strength, its quality), how can its saltness be restored?? It is not good for anything any longer but to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men.”

Salt is so important! Salt gives flavor to food. Ask anyone who has been forced to follow a low – salt diet and they will tell you how much they crave salt. Salt is a preservative. Before refrigeration, salt was routinely used to preserve meat and vegetables. For centuries, salt has been used to clean and heal wounds. Even today we still routinely clean wounds with normal saline, a sterile solution with the same concentration of salt as human plasma. In hospitals we routinely give drip fluids with 9% sodium chloride to maintain the body’s balance of salt. People need salt to live!  

Animals crave salt. Several years ago, we were at Mole Game Reserve watching a herd of elephants. Suddenly our guide requested that we move 50 meters away from the path. Why? Because the elephants had a natural salt lick and they were on their way to get the salt their bodies were crying for. Those elephants weren’t going to allow anything to stand in their way! When I was growing up on the farm, we routinely put out salt blocks for our cattle so that they could lick them. Animals need salt to live.

Dictionary.com says Words related to the idea of “salt of the earth” include proper, principled, righteous, noble, moralistic, trustworthy, renowned, illustrious, eminent, well – known, distinguished, prominent, esteemed, satisfying, worthwhile, admirable, reliable, excellent, desirable, and valuable.” WOW! In an earlier age, people in a community described those whom they admired as being “salt of the earth,” and they were referring to all these qualities.

But what can you do if salt has lost its taste, strength, and quality? If for some reason salt loses its saltiness, its essence, then it is just white crystals that are good for nothing. For us, if we abandon righteousness, if we compromise, we are like salt that has lost its flavor. Each of us can probably think of someone whom we admired who faltered at some point. The same thing can happen to us! But how can we remain salty?

To become the salt of the earth, we must worship the One who made it in the first place. When we worship, we take on the character of whatever it is that we worship. Only the all – wise and all – good God, our Maker and Creator, the One who loves us better than we can love ourselves, is worthy of worship and praise. This morning, “come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. 7For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture,
and the sheep [b]of His hand.” Psalm 95:6 – 7

PRAYER: Father God, this morning we bow before you. Change us into the image of Your likeness. Help us to truly be the salt of the earth, so that others will want to know you also. In the mighty and precious Name of Jesus. Amen.

Matthew 5:11 “Blessed (happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous – with life and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of your outward conditions) are you when people revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things against you falsely on My account. 12 Be glad and supremely joyful, for your reward in heaven is great (strong and intense) for in this same way people persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Yesterday we began discussing what it means to be persecuted. But Jesus didn’t stop with just one statement; instead, He went on to elaborate. In these verses, Jesus is promising us that as believers we are going to be reviled. The term “revile” means “to criticize or to abuse in an angrily insulting manner.” Here Jesus was actually describing ahead of time the verbal insults He was to receive throughout His ministry.

Long before the crucifixion took place, Jesus was already facing a fire storm of criticism. By the time Jesus came on the scene, Judaism had become a highly formalized religion with hundreds of tiny rules that were to be observed if one was to achieve true holiness. Tithing had become so organized that some extra – observant Jews were even tithing their spices – their mint and dill and cumin. The religious leaders were furious with Jesus because He didn’t follow every single one of these rules. Jesus criticized those leaders because they were more interested in following all of the rules and getting everything “right” than they were caring for people who were in need. It had reached the point that some religious leaders were making large gifts to the temple and then neglecting their aged parents.

The religious leaders became incensed when Jesus sought out sinners such as tax collectors and prostitutes and even ate with them – another violation of religious practice. And then Jesus had the audacity to heal people on the Sabbath and to point out that no religious leader would have left his donkey or his ox to suffer if that animal had fallen into a pit on the Sabbath, but would have quickly rescued the animal.

What did Jesus mean about the persecution of the prophets? There is good documentation for at least six Old Testament prophets dying through martyrdom. Their deaths ranged from being sawn in two to stoning, stabbing, etc.

Paul says in Hebrews 11:14 – 16 that all of these people died in faith “in search of a better and more desirable country.” Even though the prophets came before Jesus, they knew that Messiah was coming.  Even Balaam, a pagan seer, foretold the coming of the Messiah.

There’s a Country and Western song that says, “if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father, except through Me.” Today, what are you standing for? What is most important to you? Your job? Your family? Your status? Your bank account? Are you standing for something eternal or are you standing for something that can die or disappear? Yes, family members are critically important and we should love them, but love for your family will not cancel out your sin – debt. Only Jesus can give eternal life. Only Jesus can save you from your sins.

PRAYER: Father, persecution frightens us! We don’t want to suffer. But suffering is inevitable; sooner or later we will face it. Please help us to look to those things that are eternal. Take away our sins. Wash our filthy hearts. And help us to follow hard after Jesus for the rest of our lives. In the mighty and precious Name of Jesus. Amen.

Matthew 5:10 “Blessed and happy and enviably fortunate and spiritually prosperous (in the state in which the born – again child of God enjoys and finds satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of his outward conditions) are those who are persecuted for righteousness‘ sake( for being and doing right), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven!”

Recently a Nigerian pastor was kidnapped by Muslim terrorists. In the video the captors intended as propaganda, the pastor refused to beg for his life, but rather testified to the goodness of God and the need for salvation through Jesus Christ. That pastor paid with his life; the terrorists beheaded him!

Many of us might never pay with our physical lives for our faith, but that does not mean that we will not be “persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” Each and every time we take a stand for what is right, we run the risk of becoming a target of someone else’s frustrations, bitterness, or resentment. We may be mocked at our workplaces. We may lose promotions because we refuse to cheat or to pay bribes. We may be verbally or physically attacked for the stands we have taken. But the struggle is worth it!

THE STRUGGLE IS WORTH IT! THE STRUGGLE IS WORTH IT!

THE STRUGGLE IS WORTH IT!

WRITE THESE WORDS ON YOUR HEARTS!

Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere.” When we have become Christ – followers, we have automatically enlisted in the Army of Light, the Army of Righteousness. “The church today is in a battle and there is no demilitarized zone,” to quote Ron Kenoly. And we are not contending for an earthly kingdom, but for a heavenly one. In the Hallelujah Chorus we sing, “The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ. And He shall reign forever and ever!”

That pastor who died in Nigeria is not an isolated case! It is estimated that 75% of the Christians in North Korea eventually die for their faith. One father who showed a Christian video in the privacy of his home was later run over by bulldozers in the public square in front of his horrified family. The family refused to renounce Christ. This story was recounted to us by South Korean believers we met at a CHE training in 2011. In Northern Nigeria, Muslim extremists are trying to kill as many Christians as possible. Make no mistake! The time is coming when each of us must individually decide to take a stand for Christ or against Him. And we may die or suffer as a result. So why bother?

We have been promised “a Kingdom that is firm and stable and cannot be shaken.” (Hebrews 12:28) Nothing we have on this earth is permanent. In the news yesterday we learned that Kobe Bryant, one of the outstanding basketball players of all time, perished in a helicopter crash. Yesterday morning before that helicopter took off, Mr. Bryant had it all – fame, fortune, family. But in an instant, everything was gone, and his life was over.

Today, what is the purpose of your life? For what are you striving? If you are striving for anything less than the Kingdom of God, you are cheating and deceiving yourself. Don’t settle for feel – good substitutes! Turn to Jesus while you still can!

PRAYER: Father God, help us! We want to give our hearts to you but aren’t sure how to do so. We confess that we are sinners and that nothing we have done or can do will earn our way into Your Heaven. Forgive our sins. Clean up our hearts. And help us to follow hard after you all the days of our lives. In Jesus’ mighty Name. Amen.

Matthew 5:9 “Blessed (enjoying enviable happiness, spiritually prosperous – with life – joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the makers and maintainers of peace, for they shall be called the sons of God!”

Many Americans have grown up idolizing men of action – the Rambos, the John Waynes, men who never backed down from a fight, no matter what. No matter which country you visit, you will find that there are similar warrior traditions. And yes, there are times when you need to take a stand against evil and wrong – doing. We should have the courage of our convictions. But many times, we use these mental images as an excuse to take offense needlessly or to throw our weight around as a matter of course. Picking unnecessary fights is tiring for the fighter and equally tiring for those around him/her. Proverbs 26:17 says, ”He who, passing by, stops to meddle with strife that is none of his business is like one who takes a (passing) dog by the ears.” (NKJV)

Nobody in his right mind would try to grab a strange dog by the ears! You could get bitten and get rabies and die. But sometimes we are willing to do something just as stupid, getting involved in quarrels that are none of our business. Why are we so willing to embroil ourselves in conflict but so unwilling to make peace? The video that accompanies this devotional features Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Leymah Gbowee, and Mother Teresa. Leymah Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist responsible for leading a women’s nonviolent peace movement, Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace that helped bring an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. In 2011 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Do peacemakers have an easy time of it? Are you kidding! Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi were murdered. Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for many years. Leymah Gbowee and her followers faced public ridicule and all kinds of problems. But all of these people were faithful to the idea of creating and MAINTAINING peace.

Maintaining peace is even trickier than making peace in the first place. Anyone who has tried to settle a long – standing family conflict can testify that just when you think everything is going to be fine, someone suddenly remembers an old hurt, and the whole mess begins all over again! So why even try in the first place?

1. We all need peace. Development, whether personal, institutional, or national, requires peace.
2. Our bodies and our hearts were not made for continuous stress. After awhile your adrenal glands become tired of continually pumping out adrenaline. Stress from unresolved conflict takes its toll on our hearts, our brains, our kidneys, and on every other part of our body.
3. Continual stress destroys families. We carry our fights home with us and then fight with spouses and children.
4. God made us to live in peace with one another. If we want to be called the children of God, we must make peace with one another.
5. Being a man or woman of peace allows you to become close to God. As long as you are hugging your hurts and offenses in your heart, you are making it impossible for the Holy Spirit to heal you. You are literally blocking God from moving in your life as long as you refuse to live in peace with your neighbor.
6. Being a man or woman of peace requires forgiving those who have hurt you. Note: forgiving is not the same as trusting. You may need to distance yourself or just “hold your peace.” But forgiveness is always possible. Remember that the battle is not against people, but against Satan.

James 3:18 states “And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.” (New Living Translation) Today, choose peace.

PRAYER: Father, today, help us to be people of peace. Help us to seek your peace and to pursue it. Help us to forgive those who have hurt or offended us and to plant seeds of peace, so that we will reap harvests of righteousness. In the matchless Name of Jesus. Amen.

Matthew 5:8 “Blessed (happy, enviably fortunate, and spiritually prosperous – possessing the happiness produced by the experience of God’s favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His grace, regardless of their outward conditions) are the pure in heart, for they shall see God!” Psalm 24:3-4 “Who shall go up into the mountain of the Lord/ or who shall stand in His Holy Place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted himself up to falsehood or to what is false, nor sworn deceitfully.”

Sometimes the tide of filth in news media, entertainment, and in places that were previously clean is overwhelming. The innocence of childhood is under continual assault – drag queens being allowed in public libraries, lewd pornographic figures being generated from children’s computer games – it’s incredible. How can we achieve purity of heart or maintain purity of heart once we have achieved it? Are we straining after the unachievable?

If purity of heart were unachievable, why would Jesus have bothered to teach about it? Surely there is nothing more frustrating than having a teacher hold up a standard too high for any pupil to achieve as the measure of success in learning. In the end, pupils just become discouraged and cease trying altogether.  At the same time, all of us realize that there are times when our hearts are far from pure. Oh, we might not access pornography on the internet, but how may of us keep anger and bitterness in our hearts? How many of us even almost cherish the thought of the offenses others have committed against us?

Purity of heart can only come from God. 1 Corinthians 13:5 says, “Love…takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].” Certainly, we can avoid obvious evil influences. We can choose which TV programs or movies to watch. We can choose which books we read. We can avoid choosing to be involved in obviously evil. But still how can we cleanse our hearts and minds from bitterness and hatred?

The bad news is that we can’t cleanse ourselves! Romans 7:18 says, “For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it. [I have the intention and urge to do what is right , but no power to carry it out.] But the good news – the very best news – is that “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:2 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

God wants us to have pure clean hearts! God wants for us to be “happy, enviably fortunate, and spiritually prosperous – possessing the happiness produced by the experience of God’s favor and especially conditioned by the revelation of His grace, regardless of their outward conditions.” What we cannot do for ourselves, God will do, if we will only ask Him.

PRAYER: Father God, today we are ashamed of the state of our hearts. Our hearts are full of bitterness, resentment, hatred, irritation, and all kinds of horrible things. But you have promised that if anyone comes to you and asks, you will give them new hearts so that they can serve you and see you. Please clean our hearts and make us pure. In the mighty Name of Jesus. Amen.

Matthew 5: 7 “Blessed (happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous – with life – joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy!” NKJV Amplified

As I began to research today’s Beatitude, I discovered John Piper’s excellent teaching on this. It’s long, so I have posted the reference at the bottom for anyone who wants to read Piper’s entre piece. But here are a few highlights:

 “Mercy comes from a heart that has first felt its spiritual bankruptcy. The heart has come to grieve its sin, and has learned to wait meekly for the timing of the Lord, and to cry out in hunger for the work of God’s mercy to satisfy us with the righteousness we need. The mercy that God blesses is itself the blessing of God. It grows up like fruit in a broken heart, a meek spirit, and a soul that hungers and thirsts for God to be merciful. Mercy comes from mercy. Our mercy to each other comes from God’s mercy to us.

The key to becoming a merciful person is to become a broken person. You get the power to show mercy from the real feeling in your heart that you owe everything you are and have to sheer divine mercy. Therefore, if we want to become merciful people, it is imperative that we cultivate a view of God and ourselves that helps us to say with all our heart that every joy and virtue and distress of our lives is owing to the free and undeserved mercy of God.”

Luke 6:38 states, “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” If we want to receive mercy, we must learn to be merciful. For many of us, being merciful is very difficult. Some people grow up in homes with parents whose first reactions to childish mistakes are angry ones. Many of us have found ourselves in situations where we are tempted to retaliate or to judge. Being merciful is not easy, but God can give us the strength and the ability to do what we are not able to do ourselves.

PRAYER: Father, for many of us, being merciful is not at all natural. But You are merciful to us countless times every day. Help us to accept and appreciate Your mercy so that we may also be merciful to others. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Matthew 5:5 “Blessed and fortunate and happy and spiritually prosperous (in that state in which the born – again child of God enjoys His favor and salvation) are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God), for they shall be completely satisfied!”

FAKE NEWS!!! Sometimes it seems that all we hear is fake news designed to capture attention. Facts don’t appear to matter. Statistics that are real are meaningless; instead, the news media feeds us a steady diet of distorted items designed to fulfill someone’s political agenda. And then there are the disappointments and shocks. Every day, it seems another group whom we previously respected is exposed as having mishandled money or power or both. And the outrageous events such as the rise of human trafficking and massacring of people for their religious beliefs leave us sickened and depressed. It isn’t even safe to go into many major stores for fear one will be abducted or assaulted in the rest room. Sometimes it seems tempting just to avoid the news altogether in hopes of remaining a little positive.

These days, there are very few leaders in any arena, whether religious or political, who have spotless reputations. One of the things that distinguished the late Reverend Billy Graham was that his organization had a reputation for transparency and accountability. Once the Grahams built their house in North Carolina, they remained in that house for the rest of their lives. Reverend Graham remained on a fixed salary and the money that came in from books, videos, etc., went into the ministry and not to him. This honesty and transparency were two of the main reasons Graham was befriended by a long list of world leaders; they felt they could trust Reverend Graham.

Aren’t you tired of this suffering and this filth? Don’t you long for someone who is completely good and who truly never fails? The answer is God. Isaiah 55:6 says, “Seek, inquire for, and require the Lord while He may be found [claiming Him by necessity and by right]; call upon Him while He is near. 7Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have love, pity, and mercy for him, and to our God, for He will multiply to Him His abundant pardon.”

How do we come to the Lord? We pray, and it doesn’t have to be a long prayer.

PRAYER: Father, today we are heart – sick of crooked leaders, of money managers who only steal, of perversion and evil. You have promised that if we come to you in prayer, you will hear us and will answer. Lord, hear our prayer! Listen to our cry! Clean our hearts and our minds and fill us with your love, your peace, your joy, and your righteousness. In the matchless Name of Jesus. Amen.

Matthew 5:5 “Blessed (happy, blithesome, joyous, spiritually prosperous – with life – joy and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the meek (the mild, patient, long – suffering) for they shall inherit the earth.” (NKJV, Amplified) Psalm 37:11 states, “But the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.”

If you weren’t sure there was anything such as good grief, then this beatitude is likely to really confuse you! When the word “meekness” is mentioned, most of us get an immediate mental picture of some weak, spineless person who is afraid to say anything or to confront anybody, someone easily imposed upon. But that definition is totally wrong!  Wayne Jackson on the Christian Courier site writes, “In the Greek New Testament, “meek” is from the Greek term praus. It does not suggest weakness; rather, it denotes strength brought under control. The ancient Greeks employed the term to describe a wild horse tamed to the bridle. In the biblical sense, therefore, being meek describes one who has channeled his strengths into the service of God. Numbers 12:3 describes Moses as the meekest man on earth — certainly no weakling.  Zephaniah 2:3 declares that the meek of the earth are those who have kept Jehovah’s ordinances. The meek person submits to God! “Jesus gave us the perfect example of meekness as strength under control. Despite the fact that Jesus was the Son of God, He submitted Himself to a shameful death on a cross for the sins of mankind. Jesus had plenty of power to deliver Himself, but He submitted Himself to God.

What does it mean that the meek will “inherit the earth”?

As to the expression “inherit the earth,” the following facts should be noted:

1. God is the owner of this earth (Psalm 24:1).

2. Those who obey Christ become children of God (Galatians 3:27; Hebrews 5:9), and “joint-heirs” with the Lord

(Romans 8:17).

3. The Father supplies all our needs (Philippians 4:19), we therefore enjoy this earth and its blessings more than all others.

4. Mainly, however, our inheritance is spiritual (Acts 20:32); we are heirs in the kingdom of Christ (Ephesians 5:5), and

citizenship in that kingdom is available now on this earth (cf. John 3:3-5; Colossians 1:13).

5. Finally, we also look for an inheritance that is reserved for us in heaven (1 Peter 1:4), because we are aware that the

earth will be destroyed when Christ returns (2 Peter 3:10).

[Jackson, Wayne. “Matthew 5:5 — Meek Inherit the Earth.” ChristianCourier.com. Access date: January 21, 2020.

Meekness is having the strength and ability to be forceful, but refusing to misuse that strength. Abuses of power only generate more abuses. But when we control our strength, we open ourselves up to happiness, joy, spiritual prosperity, life- joy, and satisfaction in God’s favor and salvation, regardless of our outward conditions. Nehemiah 8:10 says, “the joy of the Lord is your strength and stronghold.” And we can delight ourselves in the abundance of peace, God’s peace, the peace that passes understanding.

Are you tired of struggling? Tired of forcing? Tired of trying to impose your will on others? Ask God what He wants you to do with your strength of character. Allow God to teach you what true meekness means: strength brought under Gods control.

PRAYER: Father, today we are tired! We are tired of trying to force things and people and circumstances. Lord, please show us where we have gotten off track and where we are now actually fighting You rather than submitting to You. In the mighty Name of Jesus. Amen.