The Weapon of Meekness

I was very blessed, encouraged, and challenged when I read this yesterday.

Meekness is teachability.  It is the readiness to be shown, which includes the readiness to lay down my fixed notions, my objections and “what ifs” or “but what abouts,” my certainties about the rightness of what I have always done or thought or said.  It is the child’s glad “Show me!  Is this the way?  Please help me.”  We won’t make it into the kingdom without that childlikeness, that simple willingness to be taught and corrected and helped.   We must walk (live) in the Spirit, not gratifying the desires of the sinful nature (for example, my desire to answer back, to offer excuses and accusations, my desire to show up the other's fault instead of to be shown my own).  We must “clothe” ourselves (Colossians 3:12) with meekness-put it on, like a garment.  This entails an explicit choice: I will be meek.  I will not sulk, will not retaliate, will not carry a chip.  A steadfast look at Jesus instead of at the injury makes a very great difference.  Seeking to see things in His light changes the aspect altogether.  The weapon of meekness counters all enmity, says author Dietrich Von Hildebrand, with the offer of an unshielded heart.  Isn’t this the simple explanation for our being so heavy-laden, so tired, so overburdened and confused and bitter?  We drag around such prodigious loads of resentment and self-assertion.  Shall we not rather accept at once the loving invitation: “Com to Me.  Take my yoke.  Learn of Me-I am gentle, meek, humble, lowly.  I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28-29 paraphrased).
~Elisabeth Elliot, Keep a Quiet Heart
~Brittany