Being Christ-like

‘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!’ Matt.5:5 [AMP]

Some years ago, my wife and I were staying in a particular house and we had both good neighbors and ‘funny’ neighbors. We all know it’s easier to be friendly to the good neighbors and be not so friendly to the ‘funny’ neighbors. But knowing what God expects of us drove us to go the extra mile to be nice to the ‘funny’ neighbors. There was this particular neighbor who consistently met our attempts to be warm and neighborly with an ice cold shoulder. It wasn’t a very nice experience but we made up our minds to continue. At Christmas, for instance, we give gifts to all our neighbors. But we always struggled with giving this particular neighbors a gift because of our experiences with them. But again Jesus says what use is it if we only love those who love us? I remember a particular Christmas, I walked up to their gate and my neighbor was just entering his house so he should have seen me. However, he just shut his door and told his guard to tell me that he’s not in the house. I was going to say fine! I’m going away with my gift. He does not deserve it. But again being Christ-like is persisting even when the door is shut in your face. So I dropped the gift with the guard. Nothing appeared to change after that. Yet strangely one morning as I drove out of my house on my way to I saw this same neighbor flagging me down so I stopped. And he came to me and said ‘I need Jesus, can you lead me to Christ?’ I was completely blown away. What if I’d been nasty, what if I’d paid him back in his own coin, or what if I snubbed him? After all he deserved to be ignored. I would have missed winning this soul for Christ. By God’s grace, I led him to Christ that day.

Blessed are the meek for they shall posses the land. There are things that will pressure you and challenge your meekness but God wants you to be meek because the possession of your land is tied to your meekness. So are you willing to get your point across at any cost whatsoever? God says be mild, for blessed are the mild.

Prayer: Father, take me and grow me in meekness in every part of my life, in Jesus Name.