What is Meekness?

Jesus called himself gentle and meek. Does meekness mean weakness? Was Jesus weak?

Best word picture for "meekness" is velvet covered steal. A gentle strength. A soft but unwavering firmness.

We are called to be meek, and can be meek, because we trust God alone to be our defense, our advocate, and we believe that He does look out for us. When we are fully surrendered to Him, we can have meek confidence that He will protect us, vindicate us, provide for us.

Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. 9 Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. Isaiah 58:8-9

Love the picture that God is my rear guard. He's looking out for me.

Charles Stanley stated, "God takes full responsibility for those who are fully devoted to Him."

We don't have to fight or defend ourselves.

I'm learning to walk in meekness, and leave my concerns, worries, fears, stresses with God. Guess I'm better off with God looking out for His Kingdom and His servants than for me to try to do that job. He's a little bigger, stronger, wiser, and more powerful.

pastors in prayer

Started today off by meeting with a group of pastors for our weekly prayer gathering. These are pastors from a variety of denominational and theological backgrounds but who share a few things in common:

• we believe in the Bible wholly and fundamentally,
• we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior,
• we believe that the Church has been commissioned with the Gospel and is the only hope of the world,
• we believe that we, as churches and leaders, are more powerful and effective together than we are apart,
• we believe in the power of prayer,
• we believe that we agree on more than we disagree,
• we believe that unless we unite and serve together the Church will fail and continue to slide towards irrelevance and stale religion,
• we believe that our prayers and unity of faith will matter for eternity so that the population of heaven will be different because we got out of bed and prayed.

What are we praying?

• renewal of our city- true transformation to sweep through this region that will lead to physical needs being met, less crime, more caring, communities serving one another, and a significant drop in corruption,
• The Church- that The Church would be unified, powerful, and effective in both showing and sharing the Gospel of Jesus with a city desperately in need,
• salvation of those who are far from God- that the many who don't know or follow Jesus would be reached and discipled into true Jesus-followers, not so we can have more converts or fill churches, but that their lives would be rescue from the grip of sin and their souls freed from the bondage of hell, and that each person in our city would discover the eternal life of Jesus Christ,
• holiness- that we, as pastors, would live God-honoring lives, and in turn, those who profess Jesus as their Lord, would begin to live more like Jesus- in word and deed.

Ok, we're praying tons more but those are just a few things that are weighing on my heart as we pray.

Thought I'd take a moment and share.

Does what upsets me upset God?

I was jogging recently and thinking and stressing about a few issues that were upsetting me. So, I did what any God-fearing, super-spiritual pastor would do- I complained about them to God. I let Him know what was upsetting me and why and then asked Him to fix them. Sounds good and right?

While I was praying, er... complaining, a thought (maybe the Holy Spirit) struck me,

"Does what upsets me upset God?" Doh! That hurt. Do the things that stress me out, preoccupy my thoughts, attention, and energy also upset God? Is God sad over the things that make me sad?

Then, an even more disruptive thought raced through my mind like a run-away train about to dramatically change my day,

"Do the things that upset God also upset me? Or do I even think about the things that upset God?"

Maybe you're thinking, "God, upset?" Yes, certainly there are plenty of examples biblically of things that upset, anger, preoccupy the attention of God. Want just a few? People going to hell. Care for the orphans and the widows. The health and beauty (holiness) of the Church (Bride of Christ). Yea, those things are important and should be on my mind and when they are not given proper attention or care, they should upset me.

So, what I'm praying now, "God, break my heart with the things that break yours. Upset me with the things that upset you. And remove from my awareness or conscious thinking worries and stress of this life that matter little in the scope of eternity."

Are the things that upset you also upsetting God? Do they matter for eternity?

Are the things that break God's heart also breaking your heart?