While the word warrior conjures up images of strength and power, meekness is actually the secret weapon of a spiritual warrior. When we learn how to be a Lamb before God, we grow in spiritual authority. Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves, Jesus told his disciples in Luke 10:3. Most of us think that to be mighty in God, we have to be some sort of powerful superhero, but that is simply untrue. A Lamb is a defenseless little thing that relies on its shepherd to keep it safe. What better metaphor could exist for a follower of Christ?
Jesus furthered that metaphor in Matthew 10:16 – behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore, be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. God wants us to face our enemy, not with aggression, but with loving gentleness. We can survive as a Lamb among wolves because our best friend is a lion. No wolf will attack us when we live under the shadow of a lion that promised he would never leave us nor forsake us.
God will protect and keep us. We need only remember the words of Psalm 91 to know that truth;
He who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in him I will trust. Surely he shall deliver you from the snare the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you shall take refuge; his truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the distraction that lays waste at noonday. 1000 may fall at your side, in 10,000 at your right hand; but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes show you look, and see the reward of the wicked. Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the most high, your dwelling place, no evil shall before you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; for he shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You shall tread upon the line in the Colebrook, the young lion in the serpent you shall trample underfoot. Because he has set his love upon me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him, and show him my salvation.
God will protect and keep us. A Lamb offers an intriguing picture of our response to God. Lambs are meek, humble, and gentle. They are growing and curious. These same qualities occur when a man or woman is broken before God. Meekness is not weakness – it is strength under control. Moses was the meekness man on the face of the earth, and yet he led millions of people.
Numbers 12:3 – now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth, Jesus said in Matthew 5:5. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, he added in Matthew 11:29.
Meekness occurs when we put God first, speaking from his heart and not our own. Being meek means representing God strength, not relying on ourselves. Most assuredly, I say to you, the son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the father do; for whatever he does, the son also does in like manner.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:19 – 20, for the father loves the son, and shows him all things that he himself does; and he was show him greater works than these, that you may marvel.
We develop meekness by becoming submissive and vulnerable to God. To know God’s strength, we have to learn how to live in our weaknesses. We have to turn that weakness and in adequacy into vulnerability before God. When we stop crying out to God in hopelessness and begin approaching him with thankfulness, we discover God’s power.
Meekness is strength in the right places. The enemy subverts us in our excesses in the natural. When we have to use physical power to control people we will crush them, use them, and abuse them. When we can only govern people by mental and emotional coercion then we are using the Latin power of the soul, not the freedom loving, gracious power of the spirit.
To live in the high places of the spirit demands a humility and a rest in the goodness of God. A meek person has been hugely overcome by goodness and lovingkindness to the degree that their own personality has been radically changed. That old domineering, overpowering personality has been thoroughly broken.
Meekness reveals and releases a different dimension of power, strength, and courage. Meekness shields us from the arrogance of our opposition while giving us an internal depth of authority that cannot be overcome. Meekness and rest, when combined, are very potent and powerful weapons. They are behaviors that dominate our lifestyle so that people may receive blessing. 2nd Corinthians 13:4 tells us:
For indeed he was crucified because of weakness, yet he lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in him, yet we will live with him because of the power of God directed towards you.
The context for this verse is that Paul must come to Corinth to bring a measure of discipline. It is the manner of his coming that he writes about. He will not spare anyone, but he is coming close in meekness.
We live with God in our weakness, and we live in him because of the power that other people need to have directed at them through our lifestyle. What we are not in ourselves is used by God to bring blessing to others. His strength in our weakness makes us meek. Meekness is gratitude, humility, grace, and love combining fully in our heart and mind. It dispels our arrogance and opens us up to be a conduit for God’s true nature.
Meekness is the high point of influence. It sees people’s potential and speaks to it. It calls people up to a higher place of abiding, yet gives grace to people who choose a lower path of thinking. Sometimes people have to do it their own way, the hard way. We can stumble on the rock and be broken, or it can fall on us and we are crushed – Matthew 21:44.
In meekness we get to stand with people now or wait for them to adjust later. Meekness empowers us to be consistent in our approach to people and circumstances.
We lead with influence and purity. Meekness allows us to sustain our innocence and not become cynical, sarcastic, or controlling. We seek the release of others, not their control. In meekness, we relate to God more beautifully through all of life’s provocations.
Assignment – examine your own heart and approach to people. How is the lack of meekness affected your own behavior? How has it affected relationships you have with other people? What must change in you; what must be broken that meekness may be birthed?
Commission – study Psalm 91. Journal your thoughts on: the secret place, living in God shadow, God is your refuge, living above the problem, living in the promise of God, and having God’s love set on you.