In this episode I go over gentleness and learning to be intentionally gentle. I pair this with scripture, prayer, and reflection to reveal the fruit of the Spirit in our hearts.
This episode is number 8 of 9 episodes about the fruit of the Spirit. In the first seven episodes we went over love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness. If you haven't checked out those episodes, go check them out first and come back to this because all of these episodes are going to go hand in hand with the fruit of the Spirit. To really take this journey of transformation with me, you need to make sure you check out each episode and do the reflection on each episode. I know that if you take this journey with me to really dive deep and reveal the fruit of the Spirit in our hearts, that it can and will transform your heart.
So first let's say a quick prayer to reveal gentleness in our hearts: Lord I pray that you lift up every single person reading this right now. I pray that you reveal gentleness in our hearts and that you open up our eyes to see the truth of your words. I pray that you open up our hearts, our ears, our mind to you Lord, that we show gentleness to every single person that we come across, and that your gentleness is revealed in our hearts. I love you so much Lord. In Jesus; name, Amen.
Now that we have our hearts open to receiving gentleness, let's go straight into some scripture:
"A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." -Proverbs 15: 1
This verse is so true and so powerful. I know from experience that it's not always what you say, but how you say it. If you are answering gently to someone, even if you are telling them something they may not want to hear, but you're saying it in a gentle, loving and kind way, it's going to be taken a lot better than if you were to answer someone in a harsh way. So being gentle doesn't always mean being nice or saying what people want to hear, but the way that you say something, in a loving, compassionate, and kind way, that is the importance and that's a big part of being gentle.
Before we get any further into more scripture, I did want to just point out a couple of things here: We went over kindness a few episodes ago. Kindness and gentleness go hand in hand, but they're not the same. So gentleness comes from a state of humility and humbling yourself. When you're gentle it does come out of kindness, compassion, and in a loving manner, but with gentleness, it's about how you go about an action. Kindness is what type of action that you take and why. Being gentle or practicing gentleness is very intentional. People that are gentle focus on not doing harm to anyone, being humble, having a humble heart, and showing that humility and thankfulness, not only to other people, but also showing that humility and thankfulness towards God. So I just wanted to point out the difference between gentleness and kindness, because they go hand in hand but they're not exactly the same.
"Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near."
-Philippians 4: 5
This is just a good reminder to be gentle to everyone, not just some people or just people that we think deserve it, but to everyone. We have to let our gentleness be evident and know that the Lord is right here with us. When we have the Lord by our side and our hope is in him, we should want to be kind, compassionate, and gentle to other people.
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
-Matthew 11: 28-30
In these verses, these are the words of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is and always has been gentle and loving. He gives rest to the weary and burdened and he's humble in heart. Jesus is so compassionate, loving, merciful and gracious. So here where he says, "take my yoke upon you," he meant that in every way to submit ourselves to him, learn from him, be his disciples, and when we do that we will find rest for our souls. When we are disciples of Jesus Christ, we learn from him by studying our Bible, and follow him, gentleness and humility will be revealed in our hearts.
I also just wanted to point out a passage where it shows Jesus's gentleness. We actually went over this in chapter 8 of our Bible study of John in verses 1-11, where the Pharisees brought in the woman that was caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and they were trying to trap Jesus so they could have a basis for accusing him. Jesus's response was very gentle, because instead of him reprimanding these people, reprimanding the woman, or condemning the woman, he bent down and started to write with this finger and then he told them that "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." They were telling him that women like this should be stoned and they were asking him what they should do and that's what he said. Then they went one by one and he was left with the woman. Jesus asked if they condemned her and she said, "no one," so he said, "neither do I condemn you." This passage just shows Jesus's humbleness, gentleness, and mercy.
"Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones." -Proverbs 16: 24
So when we say pleasant words to people and we speak in a gentle, caring, and compassionate way, those words are sweet to the soul, they're healing to the bones, and they make others feel good. When we speak in harsh words or ways that aren't coming from gentleness and compassion, that can be detrimental and that can cause a lot of hurt and pain. So we want to make sure that we're very careful with our words and the way that we say our words to other people.
"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience" -Colossians 3: 12
We've went over kindness and patience in previous episodes with this series, and all of these go hand in hand together. We are God's chosen people, us as Christians and disciples of Jesus Christ, so we have to show compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience to others and let others know where our hope is. It is important for us to let others know all of the amazing things that Jesus Christ has done in our lives so that they may be saved and become disciples of Jesus Christ themselves.
"But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,"
-1 Peter 3: 15
So when someone questions you and asks you why you have the hope that you have in the Lord, you want to always be prepared to give that reason, but do it in a gentle and respectful way. You don't want to do it in a way that's reprimanding or in a way that makes people feel like they're being talked down on or frowned upon because they don't have the same hope that you have. They may have never known about Jesus Christ or have never learned about God. Everyone is different and everyone comes from different backgrounds. It's important for us to let other people know about Jesus Christ and where our hope is, but to do it in a respectful and gentle way and not in a reprimanding way.
"And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will." -2 Timothy 2: 24-26
So when we are a servant of the Lord, we want to be kind to everyone, to teach them, and not be resentful or argue with anyone but gently instruct them on the things that we learn and the truth of God's word that we learn by studying our Bibles and by being disciples of Jesus Christ. When we gently instruct or teach other people that may not agree with us, or may not have the same beliefs as us, that may lead them to repenting and asking God for forgiveness so they can escape the sinful nature, escape the trap of the devil, and become disciples of Jesus Christ also.
Now I want to go over some reflection. I want you to focus on these things throughout the next week, so write these down:
1. How can I show gentleness towards others?
-Think about all the things that I've talked about here in this episode on how Jesus showed gentleness to others and the different verses showing how we should show gentleness to others.
2. Write down at least one thing each day that you are going to do or that you did to show gentleness to others that day
-You can go from the list that you have from number one.
-Whenever someone comes to you in an argumentative way, or maybe if they just don't understand your beliefs or don't agree with you, you want to practice gentleness to them. Gently teach and instruct them, even if in the moment you may not feel like being loving, compassionate, gentle, and kind, you want to always practice showing that to others and letting them know where your hope is that.
I hope this episode helped you guys. Next week we're going over our last part of the fruit of the spirit, which is self-control, so stay tuned for that.
I love you guys so much.
Never forget to choose faith over fear.
-Lorena Camille (Faith Fuels My Fire)
p.s. If you'd rather listen to Faith-based, business, mindset, and mental health tips, then check out my podcast. There I will share my personal experiences, stories I've never told before, and bring you along with this hot mess life of mine. New episodes every week.
For weekly Bible Studies, tune in every week to my podcast. Every week I go over a new chapter/s of the Book of John.
You can also follow me on Instagram (_lorenacamille_) I'll be posting frequently and doing daily stories.
For past Bible Studies on the book of Jeremiah, join our Facebook Community
Komentarai