GOD
… Reconciling the world unto God …
The Scripture used throughout this study is quoted from the King James Version. Any explanatory insertions by the author within a Scripture verse are enclosed in brackets [ ]. |
© 1995 by Vincent C. Finnegan
P.O. Box 3098, Latham NY 12110, USA
| The Right Attitude |
| Humility Precedes Meekness |
| Meek to Know |
| Roadblocks |
| Meekness Toward Others |
The Right Attitude
God is worthy to receive glory and honor because He is the Creator.
Revelation 4:11
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
All mankind should glorify God and be thankful for all He has done for us. We should also run to Him with open hearts and ears to receive guidance in everything we do. He is the Creator and the Provider. When we seek Him with meekness, He will fulfill our desires.
Psalms 145:14-20
The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.
The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.
Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.
The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.
The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.
The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.
Unfortunately human nature is egocentric and, as such, prideful — hardhearted toward God. Rather than rely on God, man tries to figure out life on his own which is why he basically lives in utter depravity. Man has no excuse for his foolish behavior.
Romans 1:20-22
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
God is God, which should be evident to all. With every breath, everyone should glorify Him and be thankful. Instead, man becomes vain in his own imagination which means foolish in his reasoning or thinking. His heart becomes darkened which, as you continue to read in Romans, leads to worship of the creature rather than the Creator and to utter hopeless, sinful, unclean living.
We can avoid this horrible plight by accepting Christ as Lord and learning to walk by the holy spirit. When we walk this way, we walk like Christ. One of the great attitudes of mind Christ always maintained was MEEKNESS. Galatians 5 tells us meekness is a fruit of the spirit; so when we walk by the spirit, we evidence meekness.
Meekness is receptivity towards God and the things of God. Meekness is acceptance of God’s will without being argumentative and without stubborn resistance. It is a willing cessation of our own thoughts, opinions, and ideas for God’s. Meekness, simply stated, is the willingness to listen, hear, and do God’s will. Since God is the Creator and the Provider, to be meek to Him is very logical.
God blesses the meek. They will eat and be satisfied.
Psalms 22:26
The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek him: your heart shall live for ever.
Have you ever tried to teach someone who is a “know-it-all?” Not a very pleasant task! As a concrete floor receives water, so the prideful receive from God. As dry soil receives water, so the meek receive from God. God can guide and teach the meek.
Psalms 25:9
The meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way.
The meek inherit the earth and enjoy an abundance of peace.
Psalms 37:11
But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
The Lord lifts up the meek.
Psalms 147:6
The LORD lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground.
He will beautify the meek with salvation.
Psalms 149:4
For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.
Indeed, meekness is the right attitude of mind because it pleases God and brings great blessings to life.
Humility Precedes Meekness
Moses was the meekest man of his time. He provides a great example for all to follow.
Numbers 12:3
Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.
When Moses was first told by God he was going to help deliver Israel out of Egypt, his response was interesting.
Exodus 3:11
… Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?
“Lord, You have the wrong man; not me — I don’t have the ability.” God had to encourage and assure Moses that he would be enabled and given whatever was necessary. Moses still was not convinced.
Exodus 4:1
And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee.
So God told Moses to cast down the rod he was holding. It became a serpent. “Pick it up.” It turned back into a rod. Then He said, “Put your hand into thy bosom.” When he took his hand out, it was leprous. “Put it back in.” It returned to normal. Moses was impressed, but not convinced that he was able to do that which God wanted done. “I can’t even talk right.”
Exodus 4:10
And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.
The Lord told him that He Who made mouths would give him the words to speak. Moses was not convinced. God said, “Okay, your brother Aaron will speak for you.” Moses was not being stubbornly disobedient to God; he genuinely did not believe he could do it. This record is a classic example of humility. Moses absolutely knew he could not do what was asked, yet God convinced him that He, the Almighty God, would enable him. Humility is the acknowledgment and belief that we are not sufficient of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. By realizing our limitations and weaknesses, we acknowledge God Almighty’s abilities and strength to do in our lives.
Humility precedes meekness. When a spiritually minded person is truly humble, he or she will be meek to receive from God. Humility prepares us to listen to God because we realize our need for His help. Moses was so meek because he was genuinely humble. He absolutely knew he could not do what God requested without the help of God. Therefore he was constantly dependent on God, open-minded to listen, receive, and act on God’s revelation.
Humility and meekness are often given as companions in the Scriptures. Moses was the meekest man of his time; Jesus Christ was the meekest man of all time.
Matthew 11:29
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly [humble] in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
Jesus said, “I can of mine own self do nothing.” “The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me.” Often he spoke of his complete dependency on God. Consequently, he was constantly meek or receptive to hear and do the will of God.
Humility and meekness are vital to the Christian walk and to maintaining unity in the body of Christ.
Ephesians 4:1-3
I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
With all lowliness [humility] and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
During the time of Moses, God showed the world that He was the one true God. This was a time of great revelation and miracles. The children of Israel saw many supernatural miracles by the hand of Moses because God worked with him. God was not only able to show His acts to Moses (as He did to Israel), but much deeper — His ways, because Moses was meek.
Psalms 103:7
He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
Consider the miracles he did: the ten plagues, the Passover, crossing the Red Sea, pillar of fire, cloud by day, manna, the wilderness walk, etc. Also consider the voluminous amount of revelation he received: he wrote the first books of the Bible called the Pentateuch. His life is a sterling example of that which God can and will do when we are meek.
Meek to Know
For God to teach and guide us, we must be open to hear — be meek. When Jesus Christ told what his public ministry was to be, he quoted from Isaiah 61:1.
Isaiah 61:1
The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
The first thing mentioned is that he was anointed to preach to the meek. Some may think Jesus taught everyone, but this is not so. He taught the meek. To others he spoke in parables. When the disciples asked why he spoke in parables, he had this response:
Matthew 13:11-15
… Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not
understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
The disciples were able to know because they were meek. The others had hearts which had waxed gross, therefore they heard parables which they did not understand. Meekness has always been a requirement to receive God’s Word.
Man is often compared to sheep in the Scriptures. One reason for this is that sheep are very meek. Jesus was not sent to Israel, rather the lost sheep of the house of Israel. When Jesus sent out the 12 and the 70, he was specific in stating for them to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, the meek in Israel. Right before he ascended, Jesus told Peter three times to go to the sheep, meaning the meek.
In the early church, those who received the Word were meek such as the ones in Berea and Thessalonica.
Acts 17:11
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.I Thessalonians 2:13
For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
Do you want to grow with God? Do you want God’s guidance? Do you want God to teach you? Go to His Word with a meek, hungry heart in prayer and ask Him to enlighten you. He will! We are instructed to pray for God to enlighten our understanding. You can be well-assured God will answer this prayer because it is evidence to Him of a meek heart.
Ephesians 1:16-19
Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us- ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
The Psalmist that follows expresses so well the meek attitude we should have continually towards our loving God. Read these Psalms and let them reflect your heart to God. Direct your thoughts to Him in like manner, and you will be astounded to see where He takes you.
Psalms 86:10-12
For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.
Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.
I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore.Psalms 119:33-36
Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end.
Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.
Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.
Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.
Roadblocks
Consider some obstructions which hinder the attitude of meekness. The greatest problem is sin. When we are living in sin, we are not open to God and the things of God. If we are sinning, we need to lay it aside.
James 1:21 and 22
Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
Tradition is another roadblock.
When I was a young man, my grandmother came home from church very angry. Grandma Finnegan was a sweet, elderly lady who was basically mild-mannered and quiet around me. This day she was angry and cursing the Pope. “Grandma, what is the matter?” I asked. She responded, “That ¬*#¿*! Pope changed the Mass!” What had happened was that the Roman Catholic Church had changed the Mass from Latin to English. I said, “Grandma, you never understood anything that was spoken. Now you can understand. This is a good change.” She said, “If it was good enough for Peter, it is good enough for me.” I was not going to tell her Peter never spoke Latin.
The point is that grandma’s tradition was being challenged and she resisted and resented it. Traditionalism causes many to be stubbornly resistant to God’s Word and to be fossilized in their limited knowledge. The religious people in the Bible had a hard time being meek because of their traditions. “This is the way it has always been, this is the way it should always be!” Traditions can be a major roadblock to a correct meek attitude. If you have this tendency in your life, ask God for forgiveness and help to change.
We also hinder growth by limiting God to our meager framework of understanding. When we consider the great magnitude of God’s knowledge contained in His Word, we see how foolish and prideful we are to limit ourselves to our minuscule understanding. The infinite, eternal God can never be fully contained within our small, finite knowledge or understanding of Him. However greatly we may mature, we will never know all and can still learn more. Have you ever noticed God continually refers to us as children and not adults!
How could anyone ever think his own knowledge is complete and refuse to learn more! Yet this is a common deception to which many fall prey. Often an honest, sincere desire to believe, think, and speak accurately about God moves to a presumptuous conviction that our beliefs contain the whole truth about God. This has the practical effect of confining God to our understanding.
Everyone is convinced that what he believes is the truth. That is why he believes it! None of us would say our beliefs in any way limit God. However, quite often the unintentional consequence is that our concept of God is limited to the rigid structure we have built in our own minds. The honest, sincere desire to be right slips into narrow-mindedness or closed- mindedness. We become deceived into not considering anything other than what we believe to be the truth. In doing so, we think we are taking a stand for God!
From this posture of mind, it is a very small step to criticize, condemn, and fear all those who believe differently than we do. “Surely they must be wrong because they do not believe what I believe.” Too often, we perceive other sincere, committed Christians as a threat because their beliefs are different than ours. Therefore, we think we must avoid them. Our convoluted thinking moves to “how can we fellowship with someone standing outside the proper theological structure and thus outside God!” This mind set opposes meekness, closes God out, and causes division in the family of God.
We all have to fight the fear of being wrong or of having been wrong. Regarding God, many people would rather stay ignorant in their wrong beliefs than concede they have been wrong. We get deceived into not thinking about it because of fear.
Another common reason for a lack of meekness is comfort. Most denominations have an unchangeable, written statement of beliefs which is very comfortable for people. Again, people get nervous or feel threatened by the possibility of having been wrong about God. Once we decide what we believe, we are not willing to hear more, so we will not! Anything we do hear we conform to our preconceived definition of God or disregard altogether.
To walk with God requires constant diligence and hard work. God encourages us to study the Word daily and, when we do, we receive new information. This may be unsettling to some because it requires work to determine if what is being encountered is true. When new information is taught, we are challenged to search the Scriptures to see if these things are so. Because of laziness, we opt to reject the possible new insight which results in a lack of meekness.
Our loyalty to a man or organization can result in a lack of meekness also. When a teaching does not correspond with Dr. So and So or Reverend So or So or my denominational belief, we are tempted to ignore and shun it. Our loyalty belongs to the Lord God Almighty and His son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
We should slow down and take inventory of our attitudes. Does something prevent you from being open and receptive to God: sin, tradition, rigidity of understanding, fear of being wrong, comfort, laziness, or human loyalty? Whatever is preventing meekness, deal with it.
Meekness Toward Others
Meekness is not only an attitude we are to have towards God, but also to fellow believers. We looked at Ephesians 4 to see how humility and meekness correspond. Now we can view it as an exhortation to have right attitudes to others so we can maintain unity.
Ephesians 4:1-3
I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
With all lowliness [humility] and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
As members of God’s family, we are exhorted to help each other lovingly. There are times when a brother is overtaken in a fault and needs help. We are to render the help needed but always with a meek attitude.
Galatians 6:1 and 2
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.II Timothy 2:25 and 26
In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
We must develop our meekness to the degree it is part of our personalities rather than an occasional state of mind.
The meek have a very important responsibility to maintain and never neglect. That is, we must guard our minds not to receive as truth everything that is said about God. Yes, we are to be meek, but not foolish. There is a big difference between meekness and reckless open mindedness.
We may not like it, but there are many false prophets and teachers who do deceive the gullible.
I John 4:1-3
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
We are to be on guard! Whenever someone says “this is God’s Word,” we must have the confidence and determination to search the Scriptures to discern if these things are so. When we are meek, we may be tempted to believe everyone who seems to speak for God. We are especially vulnerable to the seemingly sincere, knowledgeable ones such as Dr. So and so, or Rev. So and so.
God has given each of us His Word to read for ourselves and the holy spirit to guide us. The tendency for many is to lack confidence when faced with a false teacher or prophet, yet God clearly tells us the spirit within us is greater than them.
I John 4:4
Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
Pray for God’s help and read the Word of God for yourself to determine your own beliefs. God has given us genuine prophets and teachers to instruct us, but not so we would be lazy and not work His Word on our own. There are two extremes we want to avoid — reckless open-mindedness and stubborn narrow-mindedness.
To close our brief study of this very important subject, we will return to James.
James 1:21 and 22
Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
Meekness is receptivity which includes doing God’s Word. A common deception we face is thinking we are meek to God because we mentally receive His Word, while not applying it. Genuine meekness is hearing and doing the Word.
True meekness to God manifests itself in reverence, adoration, and worship of the one true God. Meekness brings us into the presence of God with the right holy attitude.
I Chronicles 29:11-13
Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.
Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.
Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.
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Last changed: 01.01.1970