Gentleness Bows

Just one more post before I start my work day...

My Bible study group just finished Week 9 of Beth Moore's Living Beyond Yourself --- entitled 'Gentle Giants' and it is on the eighth characteristic of the fruit of the Spirit, gentleness. I must say that this was one of the hardest sessions we have had as a group. There was a lot of emotion, rawness, pain, coming to terms with...it was hard! But, it was all good --- on the whole, we all realized that gentleness bows because the result is a life healed by God, bearing the marks of grace and trust!

So, in a nutshell, gentleness is...

~ an inward grace of the soul, calmness towards God in particular. It is the acceptance of God's dealings with us considering them as good in that they enhance the closeness of our relationship with Him.

~ to stop fighting God. It is not weakness. It is the power and strength created from submitting to God's will. It is riding the wind of God's will and setting sail toward the remote island of intimacy.

~ modesty toward self and piety toward God. It results from emptying ourselves of self. It is the correct estimation of ourselves which results from a correct estimation of our God.

~ being willing and anxious to learn, regardless of who He chooses as our unlikely teacher. It is also the embodiment of the pure, unadultered power of the Holy Spirit and one who knows what to do with it. God's teachers are not called to wield the Word of God like a baseball bat. The Sword of the Spirit is to injure Satan, not the body of Christ. It is becoming a servant-teacher, one who teaches with humility, with an attitude of submission, with an awareness of our own sins and a forgetfulness toward the sins of the flock, leaving condemnation to God and conviction to the Holy Spirit.

Again, without fail, lots and lots to digest and to mull over! Personally, this study has been awesome for me. It surely doesn't seem like I've done this study once before already...new lessons each time! Thank you, God.

"Be still, and know that I am God; ..."
---Psalm 46:10 NIV