Blessed are the Meek!

"Blessed are the gentle..." Matthew 5:5 (NAS)

In most Bibles this passage reads, "Blessed are the meek..." but meekness is not a 'popular' virtue these days. In novels, someone who is meek and unthreatening usually is not the hero of the story! When we think meek, we think downtrodden and almost certainly miserable, at least I do! 

What does it mean really, and more importantly what did Jesus mean? In the Amplified Bible, it reads, "the mild, patient and long-suffering". In Wikipedia it says, "restraining one's own power so as to allow room for others." So apparently meek can mean one has inner strength, self-control. Saint Paul described a servant of the Lord to Timothy, that he "must be gentle, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose." (2 Tim. 2:24–25) One has to be strong to be meek! 

Usually when I think I am wronged, I get ready for a fight. I went to the bank last week and they said they were charging me for the bank statement I was asking for. "I'm not going to pay," I started, and explained it was their fault, etc etc. in a voice that was definitely not meek. I got what I wanted, but I did not inherit the earth! In Matthew 5:5, Jesus says that the meek, the gentle, the patient inherit the earth! Shouldn't we practice meekness, patience and gentleness then? Let's be on the lookout for opportunities to practice self-control so the Lord can give us our inheritance!