Gentleness for Today
Philippians 4:4-8
Be cheerful with joyous celebration in every season of life. Let joy overflow, for you are united with the Anointed One! Let gentleness be seen in every relationship, for our Lord is ever near. Don't be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be saturated in prayer throughout each day, offering your faith-filled requests before God with overflowing gratitude. Tell him every detail of your life, then God's wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will make the answers known to you through Jesus Christ. So keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious work of God, praising him always.
I feel as though I have preached this passage about 5 different ways in the last 48 hours. There is a lot to unpack and a lot to meditate on. We are living in a moment of time that we need to be very aware of what we are saying and how we are saying it. There is so much going on in the world right now and for those who proclaim the stewardship of the name of Jesus, it is very important that we are aware of all that we are stamping His name upon.
I am convinced that if we were to uncomplicate our religiosity and step into the actual teachings of Jesus, so many of our issues would just fall away. If our thoughts were continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind, I believe that 80% of our social media feeds would dissolve into the darkness that they came from. If we spent time rewiring our mindsets to all that is from the character and nature of our Father, there would be no need to chase people down to express our faith. If we lived out the simplicity of this scripture, people would flock to us. They would line up outside of our doors, demanding to know what we had that they desperately needed.
Can we start with just one piece at a time? Can you today make an effort to ensure that gentleness is seen in every relationship you connect to today? Can you take that extra breath and remind yourself that they are as fragile as you have been in your journey? What kind of a difference do you think will take place? Maybe we just spend a week there.
Gentleness. How can you walk out gentleness to those around you? Let's start with that for the day...and then maybe tomorrow we can move into that bigger idea of how important it is to be saturated in prayer throughout your waking (and sometimes sleeping) hours.