Matthew 5:5 says, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." What is meekness? Well, let me tell you what it is not before I tell you what it is.

Meekness is not weakness. The word "meek" means "yielded." It literally has the idea of strength under control. When an animal, especially a horse, has been domesticated, it has been trained so a rider can sit upon its back or so it can pull a plow. The term "meeked" is used to describe what has happened to that horse. It had been broken. Now it yields to the rider or a yoke.

Meekness is strength under control. It’s what we exercise when a cruel, callous, cantankerous, old neighbor mistreats us, or when a short-tempered store clerk is rude toward us. We do this by submitting our circumstances to the Lord for Him to deal with. We do this because we can be confident that He will deal with those circumstances for our good and His glory (1Peter 5:7).

Here is the attitude of meekness in our Lord, as described in Philippians 2:5-8:

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.