Gentleness has a voice. It is the way that God speaks to us. Never pushing, never demanding, or forcing its own agenda. Never insisting to be heard. Never in a rush. Never insecure or fearful or frustrated. Never disappointed. Just quietly confident.
So unlike me in so many ways.
As I’m growing and learning to tune into the voice and heart of God each day, I’ve come to realize that He rubs off on me through the fruit of the spirit. Each of the nine fruits has a voice and we can hear God’s heart out of them.
Because He is undying Love, He is perfect Peace, He is immensely Kind, He is generously Gentle and Patient, He is overwhelmingly Good, He is exuberantly Joyful, He is consistently faithful, He is self-control and longsuffering in action.
So when God speaks it is always gentle and affectionate and kind because he loves talking to the Jesus inside of me. Because we are in Christ. I experience Him in the way my husband speaks to me, in my teen’s hugs, in the warmth of the sun on my skin, in the quietness and peace of a vast Karoo landscape, in the eyes of my aging parents, in my staffie’s wide smiling mouth, in that sweet flavor burst from perfectly ripe citrus fruit, in the cosiness of a slow fire on a cold winter’s night.
And then, this gentleness, this intentional and uniquely personal goodness opens my heart to receive Him. To love Him back. So that faith and trust are a natural outflow. And then my fruit grows.
Thank you Jesus that I can love you and grow more like you because you first loved me!
1 John 4:19 (NKJV) – We love Him because He first loved us.