Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. (Matthew 4: 4)
These few words have given me great hope many times during my life. I lost my first husband to an auto accident when I was still a young mother. I lost my second husband to cancer after fewer than four years of marriage. Both of my parents were taken by cancer as well. I can testify that God does provide the comfort He has promised to those of us who mourn.
A few years ago, I began to see an even deeper meaning to this second of the beatitudes. I recognized that we grieve for many things in addition to the death of a loved one. We grieve a loss of health, income, employment, physical abilities, and dozens of other losses too numerous to mention. We also mourn for our mistakes, sins, and lost opportunities. Jesus covers that grief as well.
If you look at the Sermon on the Mount as a blueprint for entering into a disciple's walk with Christ, then that meaning deepens again. When we recognize our spiritual poverty (Matthew 4:3) , we begin to recognize the many times we have fallen from grace. We mourn for our sins. We mourn for the pain our sins have caused Him who was sinless. Our hearts are broken; our spirits, contrite. If we "come unto [Jesus]" we will be comforted in our sorrow. (3 Nephi 12: 3)
In AA and the ARP, this process is step four. We begin to pull the skeletons out of our darkest closets and lay them at the throne of grace, asking the forgiveness of the One who can and will forgive. Now we are ready for the next steps.
A few years ago, I began to see an even deeper meaning to this second of the beatitudes. I recognized that we grieve for many things in addition to the death of a loved one. We grieve a loss of health, income, employment, physical abilities, and dozens of other losses too numerous to mention. We also mourn for our mistakes, sins, and lost opportunities. Jesus covers that grief as well.
If you look at the Sermon on the Mount as a blueprint for entering into a disciple's walk with Christ, then that meaning deepens again. When we recognize our spiritual poverty (Matthew 4:3) , we begin to recognize the many times we have fallen from grace. We mourn for our sins. We mourn for the pain our sins have caused Him who was sinless. Our hearts are broken; our spirits, contrite. If we "come unto [Jesus]" we will be comforted in our sorrow. (3 Nephi 12: 3)
In AA and the ARP, this process is step four. We begin to pull the skeletons out of our darkest closets and lay them at the throne of grace, asking the forgiveness of the One who can and will forgive. Now we are ready for the next steps.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. (Matthew 4: 5)
In this beatitude, most people agree that meek in this sense does not mean weak but humble. As I lay all my sins at the feet of Him who was sinless, I am humbled to my very core. In my humility, I am ready to ask him for a new heart. I want to be clean, inside and out. I want Him to wash away all that is dark in my life. I am ready for whatever refiner's fire is necessary to burn away the dross in my soul.
If I am sincere in my prayers, He will begin to help me strip away pride, "give away all my sins" (Alma 22:18), and make in me a new heart (Ezekiel 36: 26-27). At this point, I can be comforted that my feet are now firmly planted on the path of the true disciple. As I walk with Jesus throughout my lifetime, I will be blessed beyond anything I could have imagined in my darker days - blessed even in those trials and sorrows that come into my life from sources outside myself. In truth, I can inherit both heaven and earth.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.
I've been blessed indeed, the world is mine.
From the poem The World is Mine. Multiple authors were cited online, so I don't know the original author. Authors cited include Joy Lovelet Crawford and Dr. Tennyson Guyer
If I am sincere in my prayers, He will begin to help me strip away pride, "give away all my sins" (Alma 22:18), and make in me a new heart (Ezekiel 36: 26-27). At this point, I can be comforted that my feet are now firmly planted on the path of the true disciple. As I walk with Jesus throughout my lifetime, I will be blessed beyond anything I could have imagined in my darker days - blessed even in those trials and sorrows that come into my life from sources outside myself. In truth, I can inherit both heaven and earth.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.
I've been blessed indeed, the world is mine.
From the poem The World is Mine. Multiple authors were cited online, so I don't know the original author. Authors cited include Joy Lovelet Crawford and Dr. Tennyson Guyer
Text © 2012 Gebara
Education
Picture of young man from www.thebiblepost.com
Picture of meekness stone from www.dutchmillinc.com
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