"And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men..."

                            -II Timothy 2:24 

The next fruit of the Spirit we are going to examine in this series is gentleness. However, I think that in order for us to really understand what it means to be gentle, we must first understand what it does not mean. Being gentle means not being harsh or austere in our dealings with others, but instead being kind, compassionate and, as we saw yesterday, longsuffering.

Oftentimes the way in which we handle a given situation has a direct impact on the end result. For example, we might have the right words to say to a close friend, but if they are not delivered in a spirit of love and humility (see Ephesians 4:15), then there will doubtless be negative consequences, and therefore any good that might have been otherwise accomplished will be replaced by anger and hurt feelings. But on the other hand, if we make a special effort to be gentle and polite toward those around us, we will likely bear much more fruit in our labor for the Lord due to that person's consequential increased receptiveness and eagerness to receive our testimony.

Have you ever had somebody treat you rudely? If so, how did it make you feel? I'm confident that you didn't esteem that individual too highly from then on, and that, if they were a Christian, they severely hindered their witness for the Lord. If we don't want people to look at us that way, then let's make an intentional effort to treat everybody we come into contact with with a spirit of gentleness.

"Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;"

                            -Romans 12:10

"Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,"

                            -I Corinthians 13:4

What does it mean to be longsuffering? Well, as Paul explains in this passage, it simply means to suffer long - or, in modern terms, to patiently endure wrong doing. Now I know that may sound easy, but it is in fact very difficult for many of us, and that is why I believe we need to give this particular fruit of the Spirit special attention and meditate upon its meaning very carefully.

I find it interesting that God tells us to love because He first loved us (I John 4:19), to be joyful because He has rejoiced over us (Zephaniah 3:17), and to have peace because He is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). Likewise, He has given us the command to be longsuffering because He Himself is longsuffering toward us (Psalm 86:15). If we truly appreciate the fact that the Lord is patient with us, then we will be eager to be patient with others.

If we are all honest with God and with ourselves, then I think we will admit that we have each made our fair share of mistakes. I know that there have been many instances in which I have hurt the feelings of those close to me, and I am always grateful for their patience and longsuffering during those times. Because we appreciate it when others are longsuffering with us, we ought also to be longsuffering with others (Matthew 7:12).

No doubt we could each stand to bear this fruit of the Spirit more abundantly in our lives. Let's take this opportunity to come humbly before the Lord and ask Him to help us to be more like Him in this area.

"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward..."

                            -II Peter 3:9

"And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

                            -Philippians 4:7 

As we saw yesterday, the work of the Holy Ghost in our lives should naturally result in an indescribable joy in the depths of our soul. But not only that, it should also create such a sense of peace that, even when our lives are full of chaos and turmoil, we can maintain a positive attitude, knowing that "...all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)

In the world in which we live, it is more difficult than ever before to have peace. We are constantly hearing of "...wars and rumors of wars." (Mathew 24:6), and other such things that try to cause feelings of fear and uncertainty to take the place of the peace of God. However, we must bear in mind that "...God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." (II Timothy 1:7) It is the desire of our Lord Jesus Christ that the "peace of God rule in our hearts" (Colossians 3:15), and that we would trust fully and completely in Him to see us through whatever life may throw our way.

Just as a lack of love indicates a lack of God (see post #1 of this series), a lack of peace means we are not adequately relying on the Prince of Peace (i.e. Jesus) from day to day (Isaiah 9:6). If we will fully trust in Him, we will experience greater peace than we have ever known - a peace "...which passeth all understanding" (Philippians 4:7). Such peace cannot be found in any earthly thing; it can only be obtained through Jesus Christ.

Having been redeemed from the power of sin and an eternity in hell, it is amazing to me that many Christians today have a great lack of joy in their lives. If anybody has a reason to be joyful, we do; yet oftentimes we go about downhearted and discouraged. Jesus told us in John 15:11 that it is His desire for our joy to remain, and that it might be full. In other words, He wants us to have a great and everlasting joy. In fact, the word joy was used more than 70 times in the New Testament alone, thus indicating that it ought to be a part of every New Testament saint's life.

But what exactly is joy? In my opinion, joy and happiness are two very different things. Joy is not (or at least shouldn't be) affected by outward circumstances such as financial freedom, luxurious living, or even whether or not we have a home to call our own; rather, it is the result of an inward peace (which we will study tomorrow) that comes from knowing we have been reconciled to God and are no longer in need of redemption. Happiness, on the other hand, might go away when we lose a loved one or a close friend, but joy can be retained even through the darkest nights and most severe storms we will ever face. Joy comes from God, and we can therefore have joy as long as we have God.

Not only are we depriving ourselves of a great treasure when we do not walk in the joy of the Lord, but we are also hindering the advancement of the Gospel. Think about it. Why would a sinner be drawn to Christianity when Christ's followers have no joy? Why would they want anything to do with a religion that, from their perspective, causes such sadness and despair? As you can see, joy is not only necessary for our personal well-being spiritually; it is necessary so that those around us will be drawn to Jesus.

"Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;" 

    -Psalm 51:12

When we have lost our joy, we are wasting our time if try to get it back by our own strength. We should turn to God and ask Him to restore it to us, because, as we have already seen, joy comes from knowing God and He is the only one that can give it to us. We must ask Him to restore unto us the joy of His salvation.

Joy is an invaluable treasure, and we must guard it so the devil does not steal is from us as he so often tries to do.

As the first fruit of the Spirit mentioned by the apostle Paul, it is reasonable to assume that it (i.e. Love) must be the most important (see also I Corinthians 13:13). With that said, we should do everything we possibly can to make sure that we have this fruit of the Spirit in our lives. In fact, Paul said in I Corinthians 13:1-3 that if we don't have love, nothing else that we accomplish even matters.

"He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked."

               -I John 2:6

Jesus was the ultimate example of love. Though we had never done anything to deserve His grace, He poured it out freely upon each of us by dying on the cross "...while we were yet sinners." (Romans 5:8) As John said, if we are going to follow Christ, we must "walk as he walked", which means we must love those around us just like He did - even if they have done nothing to deserve it. In reality, loving only those who deserve our love is nothing special at all; loving those who don't deserve it is the mark of a true Christian (John 13:35), because it is evidence of a super-natural power working within us.

"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." 
                                        -I John 4:8 

If God is love, and we don't have love, then we don't have God. We must love both friends and enemies, those we know as well as those we don't know, if we intend to please God.

Some of you may remember back in December when I posted about the fruit of the Spirit (click here if you need to refresh your memory). While it was a good post, in my opinion, I don't think it's possible to adequately cover this topic is just one day. So that is why over the next 9-10 days I am going to be covering each of the fruit of the Spirit (i.e.  Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance) individually. It still may be hard to do this particular subject justice in such a short time, but I think we will all gain a much better understanding of these things throughout this series.

Lord willing the first post will go up tomorrow, so be sure to join me as we study what love is, and why we as Christians should love one another.

I was just going through some of my old writings when I came across something I wrote about a month ago, and I wanted to share it with you.

"Years ago, I remember watching as young men would stand up in church and testify, saying they had been called of God to preach. I would always think to myself, "That'll never be me. There's no way I'll ever be a preacher."

Ever since I was saved two years ago, however, I have found myself daydreaming every now and then about being a preacher one day. I never spoke about it, or even prayed about it, but it was always in the back of my mind. Then, around 1-2 months ago, I really started praying about my future, asking the Lord what He wanted me to do with my life. I had considered just about everything under the sun from farming, to becoming a professional musician, but I wanted the Lord's guidance in making my decision because I knew it was one of the most important choices I would ever make.

Then one day I decided to just ask the Lord if He wanted me to be a preacher. I thought to myself that maybe the reason I had been unable to shake the notion of being a preacher one day was because that was God's will for my life. "I'll pray about it, and if the Lord says 'yes', then I'll do it. If He says 'no', then I can put the whole idea behind me - once and for all." I told myself.

So anyway, this past Thursday (the 18'th) I was outside between 10:00-11:00 P.M. praying. After a good deal of prayer, I found myself kneeling on the blacktop crying out to God for guidance. After about 45 minutes of seeking God, I felt like the Lord was telling me He wanted me to preach.

Then it hit me.

I suddenly realized what a great responsibility it is to be a preacher of the Gospel. Being a preacher means more than just delivering a fiery sermon once or twice a week. It means being responsible for the souls God commits to your leadership, and knowing that if you mess up it could affect countless people negatively. Thinking about all of this, I actually almost forgot the whole thing.

The next day (Friday) I spent quite a bit of time praying, asking God to give me the confirmation needed if this was indeed His will, but I didn't really seem to receive any direction. But then last night I continued seeking God, and He let me know for sure: I am called to preach. The Holy Ghost has given me such a sense of certainty that there is no longer any doubt in my mind as to whether or not this is His will

But there are still so many unanswered questions. After all, there are a million and one types of preachers. God may want me to be a pastor, a deacon, a missionary, an evangelist, or any number of other things, so I've still got a lot of prayer and seeking the Lord ahead of me...

I know that now I have to begin preparing for whatever God may have in store for me. Like I said, I have no idea what that might be, so I've got to be prepared for whatever area of ministry He places me in.

I just pray the Lord will help me to remember that where He ordains He sustains, and that He wouldn't have placed this calling on my life if He didn't have everything figured out as to how I am supposed to fulfill it."