Thursday, October 30, 2014

Fruit of the Spirit (9)

We are nearing the end of this blog series about the fruit the Holy Spirit wants to bring forth in the lives of believers.

What the Holy Spirit wants to produce in us, is truly beautiful: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Let's take a look at gentleness.

Does 'being gentle' mean that we must be soft? That people can walk all over us? No, of course not. The Lord Jesus is gentle, but I wouldn't dare to call Him weak or cowardly. In Matthew 11:29 He says: I am gentle and humble in heart. Gentleness goes together with being humble: daring and willing to be the last or the least.

Practically, this means:
  • not always wanting to be right,
  • regarding someone else more important than ourselves,
  • extending grace and not being judgmental...
In our efforts to be important, popular, nice and pretty we often forget that this was not the focus of Jesus' ministry. He brought gentleness into a violent world and they hated Him for it. And this is still so today. Being gentle is definitely a way to get noticed in the world today... daring to be gentle in situations where debate is rising and grace is nowhere to be found.

Personally I am not too good at this. That is why I have a big need to see this supernatural (godly) fruit become visible in my life. Gentleness is not a human virtue, it is supernatural character of God Himself... in us.

6 comments:

  1. Marja: AMEN! The Holy Spirit has to plant the seeds in our hearts. Blessings on you and yours.

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    1. Yes, that's what he does and then it begins to grow!

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  2. A beautiful blog Marja - My thoughts today actually focussed somewhat on the PEACE aspect. I just listened to and watched a video of American soldiers who had returned home with life changing physical injuries ( as well as mental I might just presume). And my thought was - " what if all countries just 'stayed home' and not meddled in the arguments of others". If my neighbour has a spat with her husband I don't interfere - why do leaders insist on 'helping' others fight their wars? Why is a peaceful stance considered as cowardice? I get the strong impression that involvement from externals only adds fuel to the fire. I say - let's pray for GENTLENESS in the hearts of those who make life changing decisions.

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    1. Not an easy question to answer Anita, why meddle in the affairs of others? The Bible tells us not to do so. But when it comes to the nations... If the USA and UK and Canada would not have meddled in our business during WWII... well, where would we be?

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  3. Marja,

    The aspect of gentleness that you mentioned here that is hardest to me is not having to be right or having to be proven as being right, when I am in an argument. Argh. Working on it.

    Forgive my delay in replying, please, to your comment on my post "The Weighted Moments that May be Passing You (& me) By." A 1000-piece puzzle or bbq sounds nice! :) have you tried the puzzles where the edges aren't lined? Phew!

    Jennifer Dougan
    www.jenniferdougan.com

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    1. Ouch, puzzles where the edges aren't lined? You must be kidding :)

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