The Terrible Meek: Yielded Yet Unshakable
Surrender is the gear that engages the power of Christ within.
📚 Devotional Credit:
Insights from In Christ by E. Stanley Jones
📸 Photo Credit:
Image from Unsplash
E. Stanley Jones draws our attention to the paradox of holy weakness—a surrender that disarms the powers of the world and reveals a strength they cannot comprehend. Christ was crucified in weakness, yet that very weakness unveiled the unstoppable power of God. In the yielding of the Son, we saw not defeat, but divine triumph. This is the essence of being “weak in Him”—not powerless, but surrendered to a power not our own.
In Christ, our yieldedness is not passivity. It is a holy refusal to fight with the world’s weapons. Jesus didn’t resist Pilate, and yet Pilate trembled. He didn't overthrow the Roman guards, yet they fell like dead men before the power of His resurrection. That is terrible meekness—a meekness that cannot be bribed, broken, or swayed because it draws from the indwelling authority of God, not the strength of the flesh.
Jones goes on to say that those fully surrendered become both the world’s “doormats” and “temples of refuge.” What the world sees as weakness—gentleness, vulnerability, letting others wrong us without retaliation—becomes the evidence of indwelling power. Those who live weak in Him possess a different kind of strength: not the power to dominate, but the freedom to lay down rights and absorb wrong without losing joy, peace, or identity.
This is our calling: not to toughen up, but to bow down and live from the life of Another. In doing so, we reveal a strength that turns the world on its head—a strength that loves, yields, and cannot be moved.
📓 Personalized Journal Entry – Voice of the Holy Spirit Through Scripture:
You are not weak because you lack something. You are weak because you surrendered everything. And in that surrender, you are hidden in Me. I do not ask you to appear strong. I call you to abide. When you yield, you do not vanish—you become a vessel through which I express My power.
The world may mistake your silence for timidity, your patience for passivity, your grace for gullibility—but I see a deeper courage: the courage to be emptied that I might fill you. Let Me live through you in the moment you feel misunderstood. Let Me speak through you when accusation rises. Let Me love through you when insult tries to provoke retaliation.
This is the way My Son walked—the way of the cross, where seeming weakness conquered death. You, too, walk this path, not alone, but with My life surging within you. Every surrender becomes a sanctuary. Every refusal to strike back becomes an altar. You do not have to guard yourself. You are guarded by Me.
Live with open hands and an unshakable heart. Let the world press in—it will find nothing to grasp, for you are held in Me.
Scripture References:
2 Corinthians 13:4; Philippians 2:5–11; John 19:8; Matthew 27:54; Romans 6:6–11; Galatians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:21–23; Colossians 3:3; Psalm 62:1–2
🪞 Real-Life Analogy:
Imagine watching someone slowly press the gas pedal of a car with the transmission in neutral. The engine roars, the dashboard lights up, but the car doesn’t move. Then, with a gentle shift into drive, that same quiet engine suddenly carries the full weight of the vehicle forward. No fanfare—just quiet power rightly engaged.
In your daily life, your surrender is like shifting into the right gear. You may feel still, unrecognized, even overlooked. But when you're in gear with Christ—when you yield and trust His indwelling life—you begin to move with a power that’s not your own. Today, as you face interruptions, criticism, or misunderstanding, trust the Spirit within to respond—not by revving your own engine, but by letting Him move through you in peace, gentleness, or even silence. That is true power.
🙏 Prayer of Confidence:
Father, thank You that I am not called to project strength, but to live from the power of the One who already overcame. In Christ, I lack nothing. I have no need to defend myself or win approval—I am hidden in Him, and Your life is enough. Thank You that Your Spirit within me is unshakable, untouchable, and undefeated. Today, I gladly surrender afresh, not to weakness, but to Your perfect sufficiency. You are my strength, my stillness, and my supply.