Cultivate Gentleness

Sunday, September 7 – Read Matthew 10:16-20
Richard Niebuhr wrote that Christians are meant to be “in the world but not of it.” I think he may have been echoing Jesus’ advice to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” Being wise in the ways of the world (street smart) doesn’t mean that you have to live/act/behave as those who live by the rules of the world. Christ followers are called to an innocence of Spirit and behavior. Do you seek to be aware of the ways of the world without participating in them?

Monday, September 8 – Read 1 Kings 19:11-13
We live our live at a frenetic pace. We move through our day like a whirlwind. Our family schedules are like a constant movement that shakes up the core of our being. We don’t have time to be patient at the checkout line or the queue at the fast food drive thru. When God speaks to people like us it is in a gentle calm spirit. Can you slow down enough for a gentle God to speak to you?

Tuesday, September 9 – Read Matthew 11:28-30
Jesus helps us continue to understand this “gentle God” as he suggests that his burden on us will be gentle. Yet the nature of a burden is that of a weight that must still be born. The fact is that the Christ follower will face troubles in life. Facing those troubles in the hands of a gentle God and in the faith in the gentle Christ will allow us to experience those burdens as a bit lighter than they would otherwise have been. When have you experienced a heavy burden that a deeper faith would have better enabled you to carry?

Wednesday, September 10 – Read Ephesians 4:30-32
In a world that is fraught with petty bickering, the community of Christ followers has no room for such small mindedness. If our calling is to Glorify God and lead people to Him through sharing our faith in Jesus Christ, then the small stuff ought to be so insignificant that it wouldn’t even come up. Have you witnessed someone so completely focused upon a goal that the small irritations of life are meaningless to them?

Thursday, September 11 - Read Titus 3:5
As we pass another anniversary of the horror we know as “911” I can’t help but read this scripture and wonder why we can’t recognize the call on the lives of all humans to live into the mercy God has shown us and in turn, to share that mercy with the world?

Friday, September 12 – Read Isaiah 42:1-4
A couple of weeks ago I shared the old adage, “You become like the God that you worship.” Here is a description of the servant of God we know as Jesus Christ. How can you as a Christ follower serve in a similar way?

Saturday, September 13 – Read Philippians 4:4-7
Would it be possible for you to make this passage your way of life for the coming week?