#Humbled || Behind the Beatitudes || Week 3

Introduction

Welcome back to another message in our series called “Behind the Beatitudes.” Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve talked about the spiritually weak and grievers. This week discuss those who are humble. Let’s look at Matthew 5:5 to see what the beatitude says about it.

5 Great blessings belong to those who are humble. They will be given the land God promised. 

My initial interpretation is that if you remain humble before God, God will give me the area needed to flourish in what He has called me to do. Let me mention before we go further, this verse is often heard and received in this or a similar fashion: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” We will focus on those words a lot today, but I will do my best to connect them to the earlier verse. 

Gentleness Can Control

So gentleness/meekness or being humble is not a weakness. It’s actually the ultimate self-control that the Holy Spirit gives us. Let’s talk more about self-control. To do that, we have to go to Galatians and talk about the fruit of the Spirit. The fruits of the Spirit are gifts or traits that the Holy Spirit empowers us to act more like Christ in our daily lives. Self-Control is the last fruit that is mentioned. The self-control trait is about restraining passions and appetites. We need to dive into this more because that’s a little vague for my liking. Let’s read 2 Peter 1:5-6 for more info:

5 Because you have these blessings, do all you can to add your life these things: to your faith add goodness; to your goodness add knowledge; 

6 to your knowledge add self-control; to your self-control, add patience; to your patience, add devotion to God.

The self-control that Peter mentions here describes the control of “holding oneself in.” In his time, self-control was used by athletes, who were to be self-restrained and self-disciplined. So as Christian, we are called to control our worldly desires and passions rather than letting them control us. So let’s combine the definitions of self-control that Paul and Peter give us. 

Self-control is the ability to hold back on our urges, passions, and desires and be able to check in with God. We can check in with God to see if it aligns with his plans over our lives or if it’s something that pulls us off track. I love the pattern that Peter lists in verse.

We need to add goodness to our faith. For me, that’s a way for me to remember that God is still our good and loving leader no matter what happens in my life. We then add goodness to our knowledge. We have to learn who God is, why He’s good, and how He remains good even though there are still bad things that happen. Reminding ourselves that God doesn’t cause bad things to happen in the world or our lives signify that God’s goodness will shine throughout it all. That there are still bright spots on those dark days. Keeping this concept of goodness will strengthen our faith. We then add this knowledge to our self-control. We learn as we progress through our faith journey the things that please and don’t please God. Learning about things and resisting acts on those things that don’t please God strengthens our self-control, which we wouldn’t know how to do without the knowledge that comes with being a Christian. We then add our patience to our self-control. As I have learned throughout my Christian journey, you will never do things right on the first try. Being a Christian is a continuous journey of shedding worldly sinful desires and becoming more Christ-like in the learning process. We see the wrong we commit, ask for forgiveness, repent that we won’t act on those sins again, and learn from our iniquities. It’s not a perfect process, but a progressing one. One that God is patient with us on because He knows we will more than likely screw up again and again because none of us are perfect. Even with the many mess-ups we may encounter, God still loves us the same and calls us to have that type of patience with other people in the world. Learning that patience within ourselves and towards others is a huge step, in my opinion, but one that can happen. All it takes is faith, goodness, knowledge, and self-control. Then in that patience, we add devotion to God. We may feel that we screwing up almost daily and even multiple times a day, but we also need to spend that time with God by prayer, reading Scripture, and Worship. In that devoted time, we learn more about God’s grace and mercy that are given to us. We also remember those values and principles that can make us more Christ-like as we progress through life. 

Summary and Preview

Self-control is a very learned process that takes time to manage effectively, but thank God that He is patient with us along our journey to guide us and bless us. 

I had more to say, but I really feel that it’s the perfect message to leave on. If you want the extra homework, go read and study Psalm 37:11 because it originates from the phrase “shall inherit the earth.” See what it means to you and apply it to what you’ve just learned about self-control.

Next week, we discuss those who hunger for the Word of God. Until then, stay blessed!