Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity – Tuesday

Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth. – Matthew 5:5.

True Christians, God’s children, are meek. According to their new man of faith, they are not selfish, willful, quarrelsome, contentious, disputatious, vindictive, angry, or spiteful.

When they are tempted by their flesh in this direction and commit such sins, they are brought back to a state of meekness through the Holy Spirit that abides in them, working through His holy Law. The love of Christ rules within them. And as long as they are being guided and moved by that love of the Savior, they show forth the kind of Christian love that is described in I Corinthians 13: They are long-suffering (patient) and kind; they do not vaunt themselves or puff themselves up; they do not deport themselves unseemly; they are not selfish; they are not quickly provoked to anger, nor to think evil; they bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things.

They will also yield in things pertaining to their own person; but when the Word of God and their faith is attacked, they stand firm and unyielding. They rather suffer wrong than do wrong. They are ready to forgive. It is easy to get along with them.

This is how Christians are according to their new man—that partial renewal of God’s image implanted in them by the Holy Ghost, working through His precious Gospel, when they were brought to faith in Christ. Christians are truly blessed people; and the Savior says that they shall inherit the earth. They shall dwell on earth in a peace that the unbelievers do not know. For the Lord, their Lord, espouses their cause, and protects them, and sees to it that justice is done. The Lord makes even the wicked works of their enemies to serve their good. They have the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. They shall also inherit the new earth, wherein dwells righteousness (heaven).

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

PRAYER – O tender and meek Lord Jesus, who didst suffer patiently for my redemption, didst make intercession for Thine enemies instead of reviling or threatening them, and didst commit all things to Him that judgeth righteously: make me, Thy disciple, to be more and more like Thee! Be Thou my Protector and Guide as I sojourn here on earth, until Thou shalt bring me into the glorious inheritance of the new earth. Amen.

I am the Light, I light the way,

A godly life displaying;

I bid you walk as in the day,

I keep your feet from straying.

I am the Way, and well I show

How you must sojourn here below.

—

My heart abounds in lowliness,

My soul with love is glowing,

And gracious words my lips express,

With meekness overflowing. My heart,

My mind, My strength, My all,

To God I yield, on Him I call.

Hymn 421, 2, 3. (TLH)