I just came across this from D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on meekness, from a sermon covering Matthew 5:5. May God grant to me, and each of us, a greater measure of Christ’s meek humility!
The meek man is not proud of himself, he does not in any sense glory in himself. He feels that there is nothing in himself of which he can boast. It also means that he does not assert himself…He does not make demands for his position, his privileges, his possessions, his status in life (see esp. Phil 2:5)…the man who is meek is not even sensitive about himself. He is not always watching himself and his own interests. He is not always on the defensive…We spend the whole of our lives watching ourselves. But when a man becomes meek he has finished with all that; he no longer worries about himself and what other people say. To be truly meek means we no longer protect ourselves, because we see there is nothing worth defending. So we are not on the defensive; all that is gone. The man who is truly meek never pities himself, he is never sorry for himself. He never talks to himself and says, ‘You are having a hard time, how unkind these people are not to understand you: He never thinks: `How wonderful I really am, if only other people gave me a chance.’ Self-pity! What hours and years we waste in this! But the man who has become meek has finished with all that. To be meek, in other words, means that you have finished with yourself altogether, and you come to see you have no rights or deserts at all. You come to realize that nobody can harm you. John Bunyan puts it perfectly. ‘He that is down need fear no fall.’ When a man truly sees himself, he knows nobody can say anything about him that is too bad. You need not worry about what men may say or do; you know you deserve it all and more. Once again, therefore, I would define meekness like this. The man who is truly meek is the one who is amazed that God and man can think of him as well as they do and treat him as well as they do. That, it seems to me, is its essential quality. (Lloyd-Jones, D. M. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount)
For more reading in this similar vein, let me encourage you to read Humility by Andrew Murray (I just read it again a few weeks ago for the ??th time – pure spiritual gold!).
July 24, 2008 at 11:46 am
Just this morning i read this in 2 Corinthians 4:7-”But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” It just made me think that our attitude comes from our perspective and if we are daily renewing our minds with truth it becomes easier to have the mind of Christ. And if the way we think is realistic of ourselves (not putting ourselves down and denying our God-given strengths and abilites because that’s false humility but also not lifting ourselves higher than what we really are) then it’ll be easier to cultivate meekness. If we think of ourselves in light of what the cross says about us and daily submit to that, meekness will come. I just think about where i would be without God saving me and it humbles me enough to know everything i do that is good is of grace. When i do something or say something that is powerful or serving or give a word i have to take my thoughts captive, pray and tell God thank you for working through me and give him all the glory for it. I just think who am i? why would God choose me? Why would he even choose to give me gifts and use me? I find when i think that way it’s easier for the spirit to work in me and grow humility in me. I try to think about that verse, i am only a jar of clay and he has put treasure in me. Praise God! And i just used so many Christian cliches, i’m so glad non-christians don’t look at this, they would be pretty confused. haha