Blessed are the Meek
Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth.
Meekness and humility aren’t qualities you hear much about these days. We live in a world where people strive to achieve their best; where people are constantly putting their best foot forward. It all about impressing other people; it’s all about getting ahead.
No. Meekness is not a quality that most of us aspire to in this day and age. And yet, Jesus, in His famous Sermon on the mount said this:
Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5)
What do you do with that? Who wants to be “meek”? I mean there’s a reason that “meek” rhymes with “weak”, right?! The first time I heard that I thought to myself, “That just proves it! Christianity is for losers!”
A meek person is a weak person. A meek person is someone that everybody else walks over the top of, that everybody else ignores. How can those losers possibly, ever inherit the earth?
But as things turn out, the meekness that Jesus was talking about here, has nothing to do with weakness. The best explanation I’ve ever heard of the meaning is this – meekness is power under control.
A strong person, a powerful person can be meek. Some of the most successful people I know – a general in the Army, the heads of large corporations – are meek. But let me tell you, you’d never describe them as weak.
Just the other day, I was having coffee with a man who is now retired. But he had a very successful career in the banking industry. He was often reported on in the financial press, and his last job was as the chairman of the board, of one of the largest banks in the country.
And yet, there was an understatedness about him. Looking at him, you’d never have picked that here was a man who once wielded so much power.
Think of the people in your life that you truly admire. No doubt they’re very good at something in particular. They don’t have to be powerful bankers. But perhaps they’re great at just being kind. Perhaps they’ve helped you with this and that, through some particular gift or ability that they have.
And yet, there’s a gentleness, a quiet understatedness about them. A humility, a meekness, that attracts you to them. So it’s not just what they can do, but it’s who they are, that causes you to admire them, because they have their strength under control.
Jesus preached with power, He challenged hypocrisy in power, He healed in power and yet, He was humble to the point of laying down His life for us.
The more you think about it, meekness is really an attractive character trait.
Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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