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.