Gentleness is costly.....

After writing yesterday I decided to go home and re-read the chapter on Gentleness in Elizabeth George's book "A Woman's Walk with God". I love that she spent two years devoted to cultivating gentlenss in her life. The part I would like to share is why gentleness is so costly.

1. Gentleness means trusting the Lord. The invisible root system of gentleness is faith. Faith believes that everything that happens in our life is allowed by God and that He is able to help us handle our situation. Gentleness is not resentful, bears no grudge and trusts that God will fight for us.

2. Gentleness means Submitting to God. In doing so this creates in us a capacity for the closest possible intimacy with God.

3. Gentleness means following Christ's example. Jesus' gentleness was grounded in a complete trust in His loving Father.

4. Gentleness means bowing the soul. This is our prayer life.

5. Gentleness means putting on a gentle spirit. This means not creating disturbances and bearing with tranquility the disturbances caused by others.

6. Gentleness means "Take it".  Bearing disturbances others create, enduring ill treatment and to withstand misunderstandings.

Well as you can see, gentleness is costly. It requires complete dependence on God,  and total control to God. It's a good thing that I don't have to develop a gentle spirit on my own cause I would surely fail. When someone hurts us our knee jerk reaction is to hurt back.  This is the beauty of the Spirit, to remind us that He is at work in our lives, all we need to do is surrender.  Our relationship with God is no different then our relationships with others, the more time we spend together talking and getting to know one another the more trust is established. The best way to get to know  God is by reading the Word. The best way for Him to get to know us is by our  conversations/prayers with and to Him.

We are a work in progress and always will be as long as we live and breathe, there are no short cuts, and you can only pretend to be something you are not for so long, the fruit is the evidence.

Have a great day!