I wanted to share a portion of a devotional reading Ive been going through. I pray it encourages you the way it has encouraged me! In fact, of course, what he says here is exactly in line with the Sermon on the Mount. The meek will inherit the earth, and Jesus is leading the way. Gods kingdom belongs to the humble, and Jesus is showing how its done. The kingdom of heaven belongs to those who suffer, are persecuted, and even killed, because they are following Gods way . . . and Jesus will go ahead of them in that, too. Matthew, by quoting this passage here, is pointing forwards all the way to the climax of his gospel, when Jesus will be enthroned as king of the Jews by being nailed to the cross. There is, to be sure, great comfort for us in all of this. If Gods kingdom came the same way that earthly kingdoms come, by force of arms and military victory, the weak and the vulnerable would once more come off worst. But God does things the other way up, and we should all be thankful for that. In particular, those of us who struggle from time to time in our faith and discipleship should take heart from Isaiahs words, applied here to Jesus: he will not break a bruised reed, or quench a smouldering wick. His task, and his delight, is gently to fan into flames what was smouldering, gently to strengthen and firm up the weak, bruised faith, hope and love that we have at the moment. Let that be our prayer this Lent.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 13:40:09 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015