Blessed are the Lowly Worms S31e38 Mt5:5

For all you Richard Scarry fans out there, this one's for you.  Blessed are the MEEK. It means BENT. I couldn't help think of Scarry's best character of all time: Lowly Worm.

Blessed are the Lowly Worms out there.  Picture his skinny little earthworm shape, green hat with a little feather in it; blue skinny jacket, bowtie and my favorite part: the ONE sneaker.

Open your Bible to Matt 5:5 and draw his little picture there. 

https://youtu.be/BycU7GkRweo

Transcript

Blessed are the Lowly Worms S31e38 Mt5:5

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

This , in Mt 5:5 is a direct quote from Ps 37

Meek: literally means bowed or BENT.

What is your spiritual posture before God? Perhaps it is too upright

If you want to be in a state of well-being with God, it might serve you to be a little bent.  By extension, it means a person characterized by humbleness, lowliness, 

I’m thinking of the character in the children’s author Richard Scarry books: lowly worm. His actual NAME is lowly worm.  As in, “Let’s find lowly worm on this page.”

Picture Mr. Lowly worm: skinny little earthworm shape, green hat with a little feather in it; blue skinny jacket, bowtie and my favorite part: ONE sneaker.

You can read about him in the Adventures of Lowly worm

Here, lowly worm teaches us, pictures for us this truth

Blessed are the bent. The Lowly worm gets a robust, healthy relationshipwith God. 

God has a special place in His heart for the lowly worms out there

         For all the big stuff: salvation, forgiveness we stand small

                  We stand meek, bent before the Lord.

         Lord, this is above my strength and paygrade  even understanding

I am utterly dependent upon YOU. You are going to have to help me.

Pop quiz: does the mature Christian become MORE lowly-worm or LESS lowly-worm as time goes on?

Does this humble posture of REVERENCE grow with more spiritual miles under ones belt? 

Growing Christians grow in MEEKNESS, in Bentness, in reverence and awe.

Growing Christian become more like lowly-worm

REVIEW:We all want a state of well-being in relationship with God

         This is what the Bible means by the Blessed are those who do this particular thing; blessed are those who position themselves thusly before Him:

1.      Poor in Spirit One who crouches, cringes, beggar, dependent, shabby, of little value. Scriptural principle is that the Lord BENDS down toward the BENT over.  A little crouching goes a long way

2.  Blessed are those who MOURN:

         Godly grief over sin—Godly grief over effects of sin

                  What is the blast-radius of sin?

                  You’d agree that the sin of Adam affected more than just him and eve.  Similarly, the sin of a person typically has a blast radius of more than just themselves. That reality would definitely be grievable. The reality that I hurt myself is of course bad.  The reality that by my actions I have hurt others, even generations that may follow is a devastating thought. 

         Godly grief is grief that goes somewhere. 

Godly grief is grief that MOVES. 

It STARTS with grief but is not STUCK in grief2 Cor 7:10 10 For godly grief producesa repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

         Godly grief is in a sense productive: grief leads to repentance. Repentance leads to salvation.

Addresses the question “What will you do about your sin” by STARTING in this way: At least I will start out Sad about it.

The prayer is that then, the grief may be productive. 

Here is the blessing of those who mourn: they shall be comforted

COMFORT: It means a call to one’s side to be encouraged.

Mourning is a key to right relationship with God.

Why? Because God is faithful to respond to a right heart before Him.  He hasn’t been the weak link in the system. 

         He LOVES to hear mourning, grief over sin.

         His ear is tuned to the words: “I’m sorry” 

         You start with mourning, God hears and feels it. He then calls you to His side and encourages you.

He doesn’t leave you in mourning but responds to it in the kindness of comfort.

So far: Blessed are the poor in spirit

Blessed are those who mourn—perhaps over their sin

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

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Blessed are the bent, the lowly worms they inherit the earth

I always like to respond in my bible. God loves a doodle. Perhaps you have a journaling bible that even leaves room for such a response.  If not, you won’t need much room to draw in response to Mt 5:5.  You’ll need a lowly worm.  You’ll need a blue coat. You’ll need a feather in a cap. You’ll need just one sneaker.