His Hand is on the Door

Through the Archives: Examining Meekness

November 13th, 2007

I was reading through my own stuff and found this article I wrote a while back about meekness. I liked it - so I’m posting it again. I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to indulge my own soul here and replant a “flag” in the spirit and sign up again to pursue meekness. Plus, I want to stir myself up to dive back into the Sermon on the Mount here as I finish my book elsewhere.

One of the most overlooked phrases in the Bible is the promise that the “meek shall inherit the earth.” It’s too incredible of an idea to ponder in regards to the actual implications of inheriting the actual earth. The paradigm of my spiritual family allows for us to “skip the pleasantries”, as it were, and go right for the meat of the definition of meekness. That’s what I so enjoy and value about the place I live and work on a daily basis - for the thousands that interact with IHOP-KC on a regular basis, “inheriting the earth” is a normal idea. Many have long passed from being awed by that thought and have put their head down to grind away and take seriously the mandate to be meek before God and man.

It is still important, however, that we understand what constitutes one of the most critical phrases in the entire Bible. This phrase, that God delights in meekness to the extent that He would give the planet to the man or woman who walks in it, then becomes our window into an otherworldly value system. It punctuates what our Father in heaven believes is the most critical thing to have on a “global leadership” resume. What qualifies a man to rule before the Sovereign King of the Universe? What establishes us as worthy to receive such an incredible gift from Him? Is it automatic that every believer will receive this gift?

For many in the church today, God has become so sovereign that everything related to godliness and humility has become an automatic reality. Only God can do a thing or perform an act, and it is our lot to simply hang on and enjoy the scenery. When it comes to the things of blessing and rewards from the King, salvation alone is the qualifier of man whose full sanctification is assured by the only One who can escort us into the fullness of His heart. This assumption is partially true. As believers, we have a tendency to allow the pendulum of our understanding regarding the leadership of God to swing wildly between the two extremes of overwhelming sovereignty and the autonomy of man.

We cannot play God’s role in our journey to please Him. We cannot will ourselves to some kind of glorious internal transformation of the heart, nor can we renew our own minds. It is imperative that we as believers understand that we can never “graduate” from the reality of our own spiritual poverty. We did not have the resource to climb out of our own destructive pit at that time; we do not have the resource to be transformed by the renewing of our mind today. We mourn because we long for the in breaking of God’s power to do what only He can do in our lives and in our world.

The critical point that is missed by many, however, is that God is more than an initiator in the events and lives of the peoples of the earth. Many have been content to leave their life in God at that, always waiting for God to do His part - yet never sure why He seemingly does not and growing bitter and disillusioned over the years in the waiting. There is much delay in the leadership of God, but much of their waiting for God stems from the reality that God is waiting for them. God is both initiator and, in His stunning humility and tenderness towards us, He dignifies our lives by also acting as a responder. He does not respond to a passive waiting for something to happen, He responds to the aggressive, spiritually violent (Matt. 11:12) posture of waiting that is personified by the believer that is fully given to the day in, day out fight to obey the will of God “until”.

In the waiting, I am ever seeking to cultivate. My heart is like a garden. Only God can make it grow, but I can in the meantime care for it by feeding it the nutrients it needs to stay healthy. So I “feed” on the word of God (Job 23:12); but Jesus said that proper diet for the heart included obedience as well (Jn. 4:34) - “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me…” The lifestyle embodied by the Sermon on the Mount is the necessary diet of the believer that cultivates the heart attitudes that the Father longs for us to lay hold of. To those who honor God by walking out His will, He is a responder who will hear the cry of our hearts and give us what we seek (Matt. 7:7). We have not because we ask not (Jas. 4:2).

Thus it is imperative that we do not perceive “meekness” as a personality trait but a necessary attitude of the heart that must be pursued and cultivated with much work and struggle. The quiet introverted one does not have an advantage over the boisterous extroverted one in this fight. We are warring with our own prideful, independent, stubborn nature to walk in authentic meekness. God will help us in this if we ask. He will give us grace to do the thing, which is inherently unpleasant for us. He will empower us through the Holy Spirit to win the fight and grow in meekness. The victory will come only if we continue to fight to be meek in the years that it is greatly frustrating and unpleasant to do so. The victory comes when, over time, He changes our hearts to grow in enjoyment of meekness and the manner in which it attracts His favor.

Meekness is different than humility in that one is a response to what others initiate while the other involves how we view and perceive ourselves and those around us. True humility makes it much easier to walk in true meekness. Yet while we are lacking in humility we must still fight to respond rightly to that which God and men do to us and around us. The common definition of meekness is “strength under control”, but I find that to be an incomplete definition. There is an inherent gentleness and submission to true meekness that goes beyond our own ability to govern our passions and desires and translates into true submission to the dealings of God that break our self-will and self-sufficiency. We shift radically from independent to dependant as we come into a true heart attitude of meekness.
True meekness is embodied by the Shulamite bride, emerging from the wilderness of testing and trial “leaning on her beloved” (Song 8:5). She loves her Bridegroom wholeheartedly, thus she wisely leans against Him, for she has acquired a “limp” in her journeys to find and cleave to Him. The “limp” is the necessary shattering of our own power and strength (Dan. 12:7) in a manner that leaves us fully dependant on God as our only source of life and strength. Israel, who is the subject of the Daniel 12 passage, enters into this reality involuntarily in the dealings of a jealous God, who is zealous to bring her into the fullness of what He has purposed for her. The believer enters into this journey voluntarily. The measure to which we submit and surrender to the dealings of God is the measure to which we cultivate true meekness within our heart.

It is to that measure that God determines our inheritance: leadership of the earth itself.

David

Entry Filed under: bible, sermon on the mount