How to Inherit the Earth: Matthew 5.5
Jesus spoke plainly:
The meek are blessed because they will inherit the earth.
If the earth is the prize for becoming meek, what is it and how to we become it?
What does it take to lay hold of meekness?
It is imperative that we do not perceive “meekness” as a personality trait but a necessary attitude of the heart. This attitude should be pursued and cultivated with much work and struggle. The quiet introverted one does not have an advantage over the boisterous extroverted one in this fight. We are warring with our own prideful, independent, stubborn nature to walk in authentic meekness. God will help us in this if we ask. He will give us grace to do the thing, which is inherently unpleasant for us. He will give us power through His Holy Spirit to win the fight and grow in meekness. The victory will come only if we continue to fight for meekness in the years that it is greatly frustrating and unpleasant to do so. The victory comes when, over time, He changes our hearts to grow to enjoy meekness and the manner in which it attracts His favor.
Meekness is different from humility in that one is a response to what others start while the other involves how we view and perceive ourselves and those around us. True humility makes it easier to walk in true meekness. Yet while we are lacking in humility we must still fight to respond rightly to that which God and men do to us and around us. The common definition of meekness is “strength under control”, but I find that an incomplete definition. There is an inherent gentleness and submission to true meekness that goes beyond our own ability to govern our passions and desires and translates into true submission to the dealings of God that break our self-will and self-sufficiency. We shift radically from independent to dependent as we come into a true heart attitude of meekness.
The bride of the Song of Solomon embodies true meekness, emerging from the wilderness of testing and trial “leaning on her beloved” (Song 8:5). She loves her Bridegroom wholeheartedly, thus she wisely leans against Him, for she has acquired a “limp” in her journeys to find and cleave to Him. The “limp” is the necessary shattering of our own power and strength (Dan. 12:7) in a way that leaves us fully dependent on God as our only source of life and strength. Israel, who is the subject of the Daniel 12 passage, enters into this reality involuntarily in the dealings of a jealous God, who is zealous to bring her into the fullness of what He has purposed for her. The believer enters into this journey voluntarily. The measure to which we submit and surrender to the dealings of God is the measure to which we cultivate by grace true meekness within our heart.
It is to that measure that God determines our inheritance, as it relates to this specific promise: leadership of the earth itself.