Strength in Meekness

What attributes do you identify with?  Patient?  Kind?  Faithful?  Merciful?  Forgiving?  Gentle?  Peaceful?  Loving?  Meek?

Psalm 37:10-11 (ESV) In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.  But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.

Matthew 5:5 (ESV) "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

How would you describe someone who is meek?

Meekness is not to be confused with weakness, or cowardliness, or wimpiness; rather, it is power and strength under control.  (illustration - horse, being carried)

"The adjective was often used of taming a wild animal or the calming of people who were excited or irritable. By association it was therefore applied to the outcome of such taming, to the gentle, quiet and friendly who, like a well trained animal, do not succumb to bitterness or anger, whatever the provocation. As with the trained workhorse, this is not simply a matter of passive submission to a stronger force, but involves an active choice to accept instruction." <http://www.sermononthemount.org.uk/Matthew/Matthew05v05Detail.html>

"Meekness toward God is that disposition of spirit in which we accept His dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting. ... Gentleness or meekness is the opposite to self-assertiveness and self-interest. It stems from trust in God's goodness and control over the situation. The gentle person is not occupied with self at all. This is a work of the Holy Spirit, not of the human will (Gal 5:23)." <http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/Lexicon/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=G4239&t=KJV>

Isaiah 30:14 (ESV) For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”

Matthew 11:28-30 (ESV) "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 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.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Zechariah 9:9 (ESV) Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!  Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Matthew 26:23 (ESV) "Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?"

1 Peter 2:21-23 (ESV) For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.  He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.  When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

“The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God’s estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight of God of more importance than angels. In himself, nothing; in God, everything. That is his motto.” ~ A.W. Tozer

Colossians 3:12, 14 (ESV) Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.