Blessed Are The Meek

"Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5). Usually when we read this verse, we assume that "the earth" means the world. But earth also means soil. There are several parables comparing the word of God to a seed, and the soil in which it is planted to our hearts. Therefore, if we are meek, we shall inherit the earth, or the soil, or the heart that the Lord has prepared for us. "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." It requires real humility to acknowledge that the soil of our hearts is too hard, too stony, too choked with thorns and weeds for the word of God to blossom and flourish within us. But it also requires great courage to carve out our old heart and trust that God will place a new and better heart within us. To be meek requires both humility and courage, and we must be both humble and courageous enough to sacrifice our old lives, our old selves, our old broken and scarred and stony hearts to the Lord that we may inherit a new heart, new soil, new earth in which the word of God can grow.