SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/28/2019 9:43 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-2
“Gentleness”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
4:2
Message
of the verses: “2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing
tolerance for one another in love,”
We
continue to look at “gentleness” or as some translations say “meekness” in
today’s SD. Numbers 12:3 “(Now the man
Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the
earth.)” As one thinks about what Moses
did they may not believe that he was so humble, after all Moses confronted
Pharaoh on many different occasions, and once Israel left Egypt Moses had to
confront some of the children of Israel too.
Moses even confronted God a couple of times on behalf of the children of
Israel. When you think about where Moses
began back in Exodus 4:10 where we read “Then Moses said to the LORD,
"Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time
past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and
slow of tongue." Moses came a long
ways from that time period, and we must remember that he was 80 years old when
he began to minister for the Lord, but God had prepared him as Moses tended
sheep for forty years getting ready to take care of people. Moses was nothing on his own, but everything in the hands of God and
that is what made him a meek man. Martyn
Lloyd-Jones said “To be meek means you have finished with yourself altogether.”
John
MacArthur writes “Yet the meek person is also capable of righteous anger and
action when God’s Word or name is maligned, as Jesus was when His Father’s
house was made into a robber’s den and He forcibly drove out the offenders
(Matt. 21:13). As Paul affirms later in
this letter, it is possible to be angry and not sin (Eph. 4:26). Like the Lord Himself, the meek person does
not revile in return when he is reviled (1 Pet. 2:23). When the meek person becomes angry, he is
aroused by that which maligns God or is harmful to others, not by what is done
against himself. And his anger is
controlled and carefully directed, not a careless and wild venting of emotion
that spatters everyone who is near.”
If one
thinks of a mark of a meek person it has to be that they are
self-controlled. They don’t let
everything that comes there way cause them to get upset, as they are like what
the Proverbs say “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who
rules his spirit, than he who captures a city” (Proverbs 16:32). There are two other marks of meekness that we
have already mentioned, and that is the meek person is angered at God’s name or
work being maligned and lack of anger when we ourselves are harmed or
criticized.
The meek
person will respond willingly to the Word of God, no matter what the requirements
or consequences, as they humbly receive “the word implanted” as James 1:21
says. The meek person is also a
peacemaker, as he readily forgives and helps to restore a sinning brother as
seen in Galatians 6:1 “Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you
who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one
looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted.”
John
MacArthur concludes this section with the following: “Finally, the person who is truly meek and
gentle according to God’s standards has the right attitude toward the
unsaved. He does not look down on them with a feeling of
superiority but longs for their salvation, knowing that he himself was once
lost—and would still be lost but for God’s grace. We are to be ‘ready to make a defense to
everyone who asks [us] to give an account for the hope that is in [us], yet
with gentleness (praotes) and
reverence’ (1 Pet. 3:15). Not only
Christian women but all believers should be adorned ‘with the imperishable quality
of a gentle and quiet spirit’ (1 Pet. 3:4).”
In our
next SD we will begin to look at “Patience” something that all of us could
probably use more of, but perhaps we are afraid to ask God to give it to us for
fear that He will send troubles to us so that we can learn more about patience.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As I think about how God worked in the heart
of Moses when he was 80 years old to teach him the things that caused him to be
called the most humble person on earth I have to think that God is not done
with me yet and so I am willing to be taught by God to be more humble, and to
have a greater quality of meekness.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to think and learn more about
humility from the teaching of Romans 12:2 and also Eph. 4:2.
Verse that
goes along with our quote from yesterday:
“If you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you…then you
will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come
knowledge and understanding” (Prov. 2:1, 5-6).
2/28/2019 11:08 AM
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