“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”(Matthew 5:5)

The word meek has a bad reputation. Most people hear it and think of someone cowering in timidity, but that’s not what the word means. It actually means “power under control” like the strength and beauty of a champion racehorse under the direction of an expert jockey.

Meekness doesn’t come naturally. We see the opposite extreme of angry defiance or wilting fear. Meekness isn’t a blend of those two traits, it’s altogether different. God has given all of us a set of abilities and character qualities. We are gifted in relationships, tasks, goals, or reasoning, and our personalities shape the way we interact with people and the way we fulfill our responsibilities. Desire is completely normal, but too often, our desires control us instead of our controlling them.

Meekness acknowledges that all our abilities and qualities are gifts from the hand of God, but we also recognize that we distort God’s original intentions when we pursue selfish aims. We thank God for all He has given us, and we put it all in His hands. Like the horse responding to the jockey’s directions, we move in concert with God’s instruction. And like the horse, we may sometimes need a little stronger motivation. The Scripture tells us that the humble will be exalted (see Luke18:14). When we allow God’s Spirit to direct us, a world of possibilities opens up to us. That’s what it means to inherit the earth.