Gentle Strength
The other day I was looking through some of my old journals from last summer and inside of one of them I found a list of words. These words were all words that I had written down that I desired to be. All things that I wanted my character to embody. I decided then that I would go through every single word and take time to study each one and see what God showed me about it and how I could use it in my life. The first word on my list was gentle. No surprise there considering gentleness is something that I have been praying about for over a year now. Even though I have studied up on gentleness, before I decided to do it again and see what else there was to learn about it.
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[Matthew 11:29]
"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me,
for I am gentle and lowly in heart,
and you will find rest for you souls."
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After reading this, I determined that gentleness is a characteristic of who God is. Obviously I knew this already, but this time it really hit me. There are so many characteristics of God. He is so many things. And, gentle is one of them. I want to be like Christ. I want to be gentle.
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[Philippians 2:5-11]
"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
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What I have found in reading these verses is the strength that gentleness possesses. We often confuse gentleness as weakness. This isn't true. It is mighty and powerful. It is in God's gentleness that I find rest. It is in His rest that I find peace. By nature, I am a restless person. Not only physically, as far as my sleeping habits go, but also mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I exhaust myself over and over again. It takes true strength for me to find rest. It takes God's gentle heart.
In Matthew 11:29, God said to take His yoke upon us. A yoke is a wooden bar of frame that joins two animals, like oxen or horses, so that they can pull a wagon, plow, etc. together. Here it is used figuratively of the restrictions that a teacher or rabbi would place on his followers. The word take here means to elevate or uplift from the ground. I am to take God's Spirit, His gentleness, and be that.
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I wanted to do this study because I wanted to be able to apply it in my day to day life.
There are so many restless people around me. So many people who lack peace.
If I find my rest and peach through God's gentle and humble heart, then I want to be that for those God has surrounded me with. It will take strength. It will take me dying to my flesh. It will take me being humble and being a servant. Gentleness is not weakness. It takes strength to look past yourself and your own desires and put someone else first. It is beautiful. It is sweet. It is strong.
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[Zechariah 9:9]
"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and having salvation,
lowly and riding on a donkey,.."