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

Those who have humbly sought God for comfort and peace in the midst of trial have had imparted to them the gentleness of Christ. Those who have learned of Him who is meek and lowly of heart express sympathy and manifest gentleness toward those who are in need of consolation, for they can comfort others with the consolation wherewith they are comforted of God….

Meekness is a fruit of the Spirit and an evidence that we are branches of the living God. The abiding presence of meekness is an unmistakable evidence that we are branches of the True Vine and are bearing much fruit. It is an evidence that we are by faith beholding the King in His beauty and becoming changed into His likeness. Where meekness exists, the natural tendencies are under the control of the Holy Spirit. Meekness is not a species of cowardice. It is the spirit which Christ manifested when suffering injury, when enduring insult and abuse. To be meek is not to surrender our rights, but it is the preservation of self-control under provocation to give way to anger or to the spirit of retaliation. Meekness will not allow passion to take the lines.

When Christ was accused by the priests and Pharisees, He preserved His self-control, but He took His position decidedly that their charges were untrue. He said to them, “Which of you convinceth me of sin?” … He knew that His position was right. When Paul and Silas were beaten and thrust into prison without trial or sentence, they did not surrender their right to be treated as honest citizens….

At all times and in all places Christians should be that which the Lord designs that they should be—free in Christ Jesus. Duty performed in the Spirit of Christ will be done with sanctified prudence. We shall be guided as with a light from heaven when we have a vital connection with God…. Those who have repented of their sins, who have cast their weary, heavy-burdened souls at the feet of Christ, who have submitted to His yoke and become His colaborers, will be partakers with Christ in His sufferings and partakers also of His divine nature….

Jesus is our pattern, and it is from Him that we receive strength and grace to walk in humility and contrition before God.—Signs of the Times, August 22, 1895.

From From the Heart

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Matthew 5:4.

The Lord works through human instrumentalities and has commissioned to His followers the duty of ministering to those who are desponding and distressed. There are hearts all around us that need to be uplifted, that need the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. The Lord looks to those whom He has comforted and blessed to enlighten those who are in darkness and to relieve those who are in sorrow. Those who have received light and peace and joy are not to pass by those who mourn, but are to come close to them in human sympathy and help them to see a sin-pardoning Savior, a merciful God.

Christ has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, and He will give joy and gladness to those who mourn. Will you, my brother and sister who have felt the sorrows of earth, do service for Christ in helping the very ones who need your help? …

Those who love Jesus will have the mind of Christ and will comfort all who mourn; those who are poor, tempted, and discouraged they will help to walk in the light of the cross and not in the shadows and in the darkness….

The Lord Jesus has given to His people the special work of comforting all that mourn. Christ is working for this class, and He calls upon human beings to become His instrumentalities in bringing light and hope to those who are mourning in the midst of apparently dark providences….

The furnace fire may kindle upon the servants of God, but it is for the purpose of purifying them from all dross, and not that they may be destroyed and consumed….

We honor God by trusting in Him when all looks dark and forbidding. Let those who are afflicted look unto Him, and talk of His power, and sing of His mercy….

There is a blessing pronounced upon all who mourn. Had there been no mourners in our world, Christ could not have revealed the parental character of God. Those oppressed by the conviction of sin are to know the blessedness of forgiveness and to have their transgressions blotted out. Had there been none who mourn, the sufficiency of Christ’s expiation for sin would not have been understood.—Signs of the Times, August 8, 1895.

From From the Heart

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:3.

These comforting words of Christ are addressed not to the proud, not to the boastful and self-conceited, but to those who realize their own weakness and sinfulness. Those who mourn, the meek who feel themselves unworthy of the favor of God, and those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are all included in “the poor in spirit.” …

The poor in spirit feel their poverty, their want of the grace of Christ. They realize that they know little of God and His great love, and that they need light in order that they may know and keep the way of the Lord. They dare not face temptation in their own strength, for they realize that they have not moral force to resist evil. They have no pleasure in reviewing their past life and little confidence in looking to the future, for they are sick at heart. But it is to such that Christ says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Christ saw that those who feel their poverty may be made rich….

What great privileges are within the reach of those who feel the poverty of their soul and submit to the will of God! The remedy for soul poverty is found alone in Christ. When the heart is sanctified by grace, when Christians have the mind of Christ, they have the love of Christ, which is spiritual riches more precious than the gold of Ophir. But before there can be an intense desire for the wealth contained in Christ, which is available to all who feel their poverty, there must be a sense of need. When the heart is full of self-sufficiency and preoccupied with the superficial things of earth, the Lord Jesus rebukes and chastens in order that men and women may awake to a realization of their true condition….

You may come to Jesus in faith and without delay. His provision is rich and free, His love is abundant, and He will give you grace to wear His yoke and to lift His burden with cheerfulness. You may claim your right to His blessing by virtue of His promise. You may enter into His kingdom, which is His grace, His love, His righteousness, His peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. If you feel in deepest need, you may be supplied with all His fullness, for Christ says, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Jesus calls you to come. “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for their’s is the kingdom of heaven.”—The Signs of the Times, August 1, 1895.

From From the Heart

But you say, “In what way have we robbed You?” In tithes and offerings. Malachi 3:8.

Would you do it? The Bible speaks of this as if it were an impossibility that anyone should venture to do such a thing. “Yet ye have robbed me.” …

The Lord saw just how it would be when the world was filled with inhabitants, and therefore He makes a covenant with His people that they should give Him their tithes and offerings, according to the arrangement which He has made. This is His. It does not belong to any of you. God has made this arrangement with you, that you may show that you realize your dependence and accountability to God by returning to Him His portion. If you do this, His blessing will come upon you. All that we have is the Lord’s, entrusted to us as His stewards. That which we hand back to Him He must first give to us….

We breathe because God takes charge of the human machinery. Day by day He keeps it in working order, and He wants us to think of the infinite sacrifice He has made for us in suffering with One equal with Himself—His only begotten Son. He consented to let Him come to a world all seared and marred with the curse of sin, to stand at the head of humanity as a sin-bearing, sin-pardoning Savior….

Christ declared that all power in heaven and earth has been given to Him…. He takes His position at the head of humanity, covering humanity with divinity….

God forbid that any one of us should fail of gaining the precious boon of eternal life. Do not rob God. Walk honestly before Him. All is His. He has entrusted goods to His agents for the advancement of His work in the world. They are to bring to His treasury a faithful tithe, and besides this they are to bring gifts and offerings as the cause shall demand…. God desires us to realize that heaven has been brought near to earth. Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of angels minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation….

God is in earnest with us. He expects us to help in planting His standard in places which have never heard the truth…. From all over the world, calls for help are coming. Lay out no money unnecessarily. Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow the Master. You can never give Him as much as He has given you. He gave His life for you. What have you given for Him?—The General Conference Bulletin, April 8, 1901. (Taken from Ellen White’s talk, April 6, 1901.)

From From the Heart

Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. Matthew 8:20.

Christ came to this world to live a life of perfect obedience to the laws of God’s kingdom. He came to uplift and ennoble human beings, to work out an enduring righteousness for them. He came as a medium through which truth was to be imparted. In Him are found all the excellencies necessary to absolute perfection of character….

Christ gave up His high command in the heavenly courts, and laying aside His royal robe and kingly crown, He clothed His divinity with humanity. For our sakes He became poor in earthly riches and advantages, that human beings might be rich in the eternal weight of glory. He took His place at the head of the human family and consented to endure in our behalf the trials and temptations that sin has brought. He might have come in power and great glory, escorted by a multitude of heavenly angels. But no, He came in humility, of lowly parentage. He was brought up in an obscure and despised village. He lived a life of poverty and suffered often with privation and hunger. This He did to show that earthly riches and high rank do not increase the value of souls in the sight of God. He has given us no encouragement to think that riches make anyone worthy of eternal life. Those church members who, when a brother becomes poor, treat him as if he were unworthy of their notice certainly did not learn this from Christ….

It is submission to sin that brings the great unhappiness of the soul. It is not poverty but disobedience that lessens our hope of gaining eternal life, which the Savior came to bring us. True riches, true peace, true content, enduring happiness—these are found only in entire surrender to God, in perfect reconciliation to His will.

Christ came to our world to live a life of stainless purity, thus to show sinners that in His strength they, too, can obey God’s holy precepts, the laws of His kingdom. He came to magnify the law and make it honorable by His perfect conformity to its principles. He united humanity and divinity, that fallen human beings might become partakers of the divine nature and thus escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.

It was from the Father that Christ constantly drew the power that enabled Him to keep His life free from spot or stain of sin.—The Review and Herald, July 4, 1912.

From From the Heart