Meek Not Weak part 3
Humility. Doing everything you can do, but doing it quietly. Not making a big deal about things. And certainly not making a big deal out of yourself. This idea of meekness really does go hand in hand with all of the other things we've been looking at in Colossians 3:12, "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering." Because all of these things are simply different facets of love. Love is merciful. Love is kind. Love IS the mind of Christ, which is that humble mind. And love is meek. Love is the definition of humility. To the point where I don't think you can love someone unless you're coming from a place of humility. You can't love someone while you're stepping on them in order to make yourself look better. You can't love someone while you're too busy bragging about yourself. Love is giving. And you can't give while you're trying to get. Whether its praise for your actions, or something physical, or what, if you're trying to get something... you aren't operating in love. But look at it from this point of view: when you operate in love you are operating in power. Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, right? That's the power seat. Let me throw a little Genesis 35:18 at you to kind of illustrate what I'm trying to say tonight: "Rachel was about to die, but with her last breath she named the baby Ben-oni (which means "son of my sorrow"). The baby's father, however, called him Benjamin (which means "son of my right hand")." We so readily identitfy with Ben-oni. We, if I can paraphrase a song from one of my dad's favorite movies, are men and women of constant sorrow a lot of the time. And I don't know why this is. I really don't. But it seems like we put more stock into negative things than positive things. We can do 99 awesome things but its that one awful thing that haunts us. But that's not how our heavenly Father sees us. The baby's father didn't want him to idenitfy with constant sorrow. He wanted his son to operate from a place of power. So he named him Benjamin. Son of my right hand. Basically saying, "Everything I have is yours." Which, by the way, I believe is the ultimate truth of the universe: "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand" (John 3:35). God loves you and has given you... everything. So you don't need to brag about anything. The Apostle Paul wrote at length about how it is by faith and not works. How it is a gift. So we really have nothing to brag about. Any time the Word is made flesh, any time love becomes charity (love in action), it is God moving in us, and through us, and as us. We don't try to be like Him. We simply let Him be Himself... in us. And then we do what we do from a place of rest. Rest, of course, not being inactivity, but Holy Spirit directed activity. And since the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Love... that is what the Holy Spirit directs us to do; love. And that's the most powerful thing you CAN do. Because God is all-powerful. Which means love is all-powerful. Because God is love. So we don't need to make a big deal about who we are and what we're doing. We can be meek. We can be strong, but under control. We can be humble. We can be kind. We can display humility. We can do what we do because its in our hearts to do it.