A few years ago, my brother-in-law Kepa and I rented some horses and went riding in the mountains between Madrid and Segovia, Spain. This is one of my favorite areas. We rode into the forest and all of a sudden we ran into some bulls; fighting bulls that are used in the bull ring! Alarmed, we stopped and watched for the reaction of the bulls. They lifted their heads and with an insulting disdain, continued eating. We were not a threat to them in any way. They paid no attention to us at all. They were, after all, fighting bulls and we were insignificant.

But on the other hand, a bull in the ring is insecure. He is put in a bull ring where there is a lot of noise from voices and trumpets and with a man who incessantly waves a cape in front of the bull’s face. This is totally foreign to the bull’s life experience and is very threatening. Under these circumstances, the bull attacks everything that moves.

When a bull feels secure, like in the forest that day with my brother-in-law, he is called, in bullfighting terms, meek. He feels no need to prove anything to anybody.

I want to be meek. Meekness is the result of feeling secure in who I am and who I am in God. The Lord Himself is our security.1 I am secure under His wings.2 “The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.”3

If you do a search on the words ‘confidence’ or ‘security’, you will clearly see that God wants His children to be secure.

I am not at all impressed by a person who imposes his will on others, one who is compelled to use his bad temper whenever he perceives that he is not being respected. I am not impressed by someone who wants to receive recognition for what he has done or one who runs over everyone who gets in his way. This is not a person who is secure in who he is.

What does impress me is a person who can turn the other cheek when attacked, one who does not need to have his every good deed announced over a loudspeaker, and one who listens to those who are not in favor of his ideas without needing to reply. This person has the same spirit as Christ had.

Jesus said that we should learn of Him; for He is meek and lowly in heart.4 There is no sign of humility or meekness in my flesh. I can not become meek by making a list of the characteristics of a meek person and striving to incorporate those things into my life. The only way to become meek and humble is to learn — not from a book or from a teaching session, but to learn directly from Jesus. We need to spend time with Him as well as meditate on what the Bible tells us about Him. We need to be sensitive to the Spirit of whom Jesus said “…he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.”5

We can become truly meek and humble in heart. It is possible but it will never happen through our own efforts.

1- Psalms 71:5 2- Psalms 91:4 3- Isaiah 32:17 4- Matthew 11:29 5- John 16:14