What is meekness?

Hello everyone. Lovely to see you all and thank you to all of you, who are here tonight to rejoice in the Lord. Imagine Jesus smiling from his throne. The pleasure it brings when His flock gathers in His name.

We will receive more food for our souls. His infallible Word.

We are continuing in the Beatitudes tonight.

Mat 5:5  Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 

First, let us pray

Lord, thank You, for allowing us to come together to receive your Word tonight. Give me the unction to teach your Word and do Your will and Yours only.

Fill me with the Holy Spirit, I pray thee. Help me to do the task at hand.

I ask you to bring a blessing over everyone present tonight, that they may receive your Word and understand it and rejoice in it.

Let everyone be filled with the Holy Ghost to enable your saints to face the World and stay strong in Faith.

You say, you will never forsake us, allow us to trust in that and with that knowledge have strength for all the challenges to come. With you we are able. In Jesus wonderful name I ask this.

AMEN

Mat 5:5  Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 

Meek. The Oxford dictionaries tell us the meaning of being meek. It refers to being quiet, gentle, and easily imposed on; submissive. Similar words would be patient, longsuffering, forbearing.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary says

1.   Enduring injury with patience and without resentment.

2.   Being deficient in spirit and courage.

Wow. There you go. That is the worldly view on meekness. Being deficient in spirit and courage. Let me tell you, or more, let the Word of God tell you: “You are not being deficient in Spirit and courage.

Au contrary! You are very strong in Spirit and you have a lot of courage.”

Why is that so?

You see, if someone is offending you in whatever way, and you manage to not get off like a fire cracker, you show strength. You are able to control your flesh, your raw emotions.

Think back to your childhood. When you had quarrels with your siblings. 

Picture this:  You are happy playing with your toys, along comes your sibling and snatches them out of your hands.

Now, there are a few options available to you how to handle the situation.
First one.

You assume Defcon 5. You scream on the top of your lungs so that mum can hear. And, sure enough, Mum will find out what happened. You are deferring your anger to Mum who will take care of the business for you.

If your Mum is a meek individual, she will take your brother aside and quietly explain to him the laydown of the law of the house. Whatever the rules were in your place.

If your mum is not a meek human being herself, she will fly-off the handles for you. You have literally deferred the rage to your parents and they will pass judgement. And you may have enjoyed the whole process. Justice. Your sin nature allowed you to work out how to manipulate your parents to do your will.

Number two, the other option you have. You take care of it yourself. Aka revenge is mine. You chase after your sibling and find one of their toys and take it or may even threaten to break them, if they don’t surrender your toy.

By following the flesh and being impulsive you show no meekness at all. You are, quite frankly, immature. Not nice to hear though, isn’t it?

God wants you to be mature person, and he will help you to achieve this, if you submit to God.

You were impulsive when you were young, and most people still are in adulthood.

Just because we call ourselves all grown up, doesn’t mean we are responsible adults that can deal with similar situations in life right now.

Like the one mentioned before, without flying-off the handle.

It takes a huge amount of Spirit and strength to not react to offenses.

Like, you were overlooked at work for a promotion. Your friend ticked you off by saying something that hurt you. Someone breaks into your house and steals the car keys and takes your beauty for a ride and trashes it. Hard not to get angry and wish whatever onto those individuals. We focus so much on worldly things. Because they are the only things we can see.

We need to learn to see with the heart. You, as a believer, are not called to do justice yourself. That is God’s job. The list of offenses and insults you will incur, is long. They happen daily on so many occasions.

You see. If you are a meek person, you can endure insults and show love to the one that insulted you.

The more you become the new person in Christ, the more you will exhibit the qualities of a meek individual.

By trusting in Jesus, he will turn you into a meek follower. So how will that exactly look like.

Titus shows us how that looks like:

Tit 3:2  To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men. 

A meek person is able to bear any provocation and is able to be not inflamed by it. They are silent or return a soft answer. They only show their displeasure when there is occasion for it, without falling into indecent talk. They are cool when others are hot.

They keep possession of their souls by showing patience. They are the meek that rarely get provoked and are quickly and easily pacified. These individuals will rather forgive injuries than revenge them.

The meek are a happy people whatever their circumstances are. They will be happy in the world to come and they are happy in this world right now. These people quietly submit themselves to God, obey His command and follow His Word.

Jesus tells you how to become meek. In Matthew we read.

Mat 11:29  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 

If you go to Jesus and give him all the things that upset you and you take up his yoke and learn of him you will be blessed. You will be blessed because you are able to enjoy life, you are comfortable with the situations that arise and you can enjoy your family, your friends. You are fit for any relationship and condition, because you are so quick to forgive.

The time you got saved, God is not only right next to you, He is in you. The Holy Ghost is your guide. Let that sink in.

If you can accept that someone else is living inside you, God, the Holy Spirit, Himself, the third Person of the Trinity, you will have the strength and the power of God himself in you. Jesus tells us in Luke:

Luk_18:27  And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

Anger can be controlled. We can choose to forgive many times over before ever thinking of revenge.

And God also tells us that revenge is His.

Rom_12:19  Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

So, nothing to worry about. Sounds easy-peasy, why is it so hard to do so, then?

It boils all back down to our sinful flesh. Learn to submit, allow God to change you. It is painful, it isn’t easy. You will certainly mourn your old self. Saying by-by to your former self and let Christ do the work in you.

But what a blessing and joy that brings, when you know you can safely surrender into the arms of your Father in heaven. He will comfort you. He loves you. Submit brethren and receive the joy of the Spirit that this will bring.

The world will make you think and feel like you are a bit stupid.

It will be contrary to what society teaches you. You may be looked upon and perceived by others like the typical doormat. Which you aren’t by the way.

You are able to voice your discontent, but you will be doing it in loving caring way, rather than flying off the handle.

Meekness has the ability to promote our health, wealth, comfort and safety, even in this world, because you are doing what God commands you to do.

That sounds quite funny. But obeying God brings blessings. Blessings equal to contentment and even more. Joy. Not happiness but joy, which is independent from circumstances. You do not rely on the world to make you content. You rely on God to fill you with joy. And he will.

When you got saved, God forgave you straightaway, he didn’t punish you straight up for all your shortcomings. No anger outbursts, no shouting, no calling names etc.; he showed love and kindness towards all the things you had done in the past.

You repented of them and turned to Him. He received you and showed you love and forgave you for all your sins. Everything has been taken care of.

How did he do it? Because there has to be judgment for unrighteousness and unholiness. Because vengeance is His’. It has been dealed with at the cross. Jesus took upon himself your sin, and was punished for it. The price has been paid.

How hard is it then, to show the same kindness and loving care to others, if He Himself took your death penalty onto himself? Surely, we should be able to forgive quickly, at least among us brethren. The Holy Spirit will teach you in this. Open your heart and allow the change to unfold.

The less you stress, the longer you live. Even the doctors of this world tell you that. Stress is a killer, number one reason for a heart attack. Okay unhealthy life style choices add to that too. But if you wouldn’t fret so much, your ticker wouldn’t’ skip a beat or two.

Being wired up all the time, will give you a heart attack sooner or later. The world tells you to meditate or do yoga or whatever else to relax. We know better. Do we? Do Jesus for a change?

Try Christ. Allow the Holy Ghost to bestow meekness upon you. Wouldn’t it be nice, to not fire-cracker? Chill-pill. Show love to the ones that hurt you, as God showed love to you, when you did hurt Him by your disobedience.

God does hurt. Make no mistake there. We read in Genesis:

Gen 6:5  And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 

Gen 6:6  And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 

Your Father will grieve when we sin. But he loves us and is quick to forgive, if you confess your sins. So, we should do to others as He does to us.

I close with this. We read in Ephesians:

Eph 4:29  Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. 

Eph 4:30  And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. 

Eph 4:31  Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 

Eph 4:32  And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. 

Mat 5:5  Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. 

In Jesus name,

AMEN.