Strength Under Control
3 Reflections
Meekness is strength under control. Jesus opens the Sermon on the Mount by blessing people the world would not consider blessed — the poor in spirit, the mourners, the persecuted, the hungry, and the meek. Meekness and humility are often said in the same breath, but there is a difference: humility is an attitude; meekness is an action. Humility is loving your enemy; meekness is turning the other cheek. The word Jesus uses here, praus. It describes a powerful animal trained to yield to the bridle — a horse with enormous strength that yields to the rider. Meekness has all the power it needs to get its way…and chooses the bridle instead.
God Himself works in meekness. This is why meekness is one of the most challenging qualities we'll ever be asked to demonstrate: it’s having the means to get what you want and refusing to get it your way. God has always worked like this. He gave Adam real authority and let him exercise it, even when Adam's choices corrupted a perfect creation (Genesis 1:28). And in Gethsemane, the Son let soldiers bind Him and lead Him away when twelve legions of angels were a breath from that garden (Matthew 26:53). The strongest hands in the universe let themselves be tied.
The meek inherit what the world strives for. The promise Jesus attaches to meekness comes from Psalm 37, “the meek shall inherit the land” (Psalm 37:11). That psalm is written to people watching the ruthless get ahead, and it keeps repeating the instruction not to fear, but to wait on the Lord. Rather than exalting themselves and demanding their way, the meek wait for God to do the exalting (Psalm 37:34). The world grabs, leverages, and presses every claim — and calls it strength. The meek take the yoke and receive from their Father's hand what grasping never could.
“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.” - A.W. Tozer
2 Scriptures
“Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey.’”
— Matthew 21:5
“…the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.”
— 1 Peter 3:4
1 Action
Ask yourself:
where do I have both the power and the right to force an outcome — an argument I can win, a position I can leverage, a claim I can make?
That's where meekness is being tested this week. Pick one of those places and put it in the Father's hands on purpose: hold your tongue, release the right, let someone else go first. Then watch what God does with strength that has been placed under His control.
Grace and peace,
NEIL
