Daily Devotion: The Lord is Gentle

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The Lord is so gentle in the way He teaches us. I had a dream one night, and I could see a man sitting behind a potter's wheel. There was some clay on the wheel, and he would just take a little water, not too much, and put it on the clay to shape it. I woke up just being very aware of how gentle the Lord is.

He shapes us with His word and smooths out the rough places.

 
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ]gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law."-Galatians 5:22

"But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand"-Isaiah 64:8

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,"-Ephesians 5:25-26

His Love is Always For Us

I know what’s it like to struggle, to go in and out of your walk with God. To not feel good about yourself. To feel like you don’t measure up.

The first three years of my life after I rededicated my life to the Lord were rough. I didn’t have hardly any friends who were walking with Jesus. The ones I did have that I knew well, were doing things that in my heart I didn’t want to do anymore. But somehow I kept getting sucked back in.

I would go to church for a while, but end up feeling like I was too bad to belong there, so I would quit going again. This went on until I finally couldn’t take it anymore. I literally felt myself grieving the Spirit of God. It was not in a way that made me feel condemned or guilty, but in a way that a parent feels for a child when they are doing something that could hurt them. The parent’s heart might be breaking, but the child continues to do something because they don’t understand that what they are doing is hurting them or their parent.

So, I finally came to that point that I wasn’t going to live the way I was living, no matter what. I still didn’t have the tools I needed to overcome in my thoughts and my heart, even if my outward behavior was not the same as it had been before.

About eight months or so past this point, someone gave me a teaching tape of a message called “The Conquering Power of God’s Love.” I hadn’t really ever heard a message like it before. It was about how much God loves us and the extent and depth of that love. I listened to that tape until it finally broke. I listened to it so much, that I still listen to it in my head now, twenty years later.

I am convinced that this is what keeps people connected to Jesus, knowing who He is, because He is love, and how much He loves us. We cannot ever stop steeping ourselves in this knowledge of the love of God.

He loves us and is always for us. You will always find Jesus in the Gospels loving people.

Or do you despise the riches of His kindness, restraint, and patience, not recognizing that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?-Romans 2:4

The word kindness in reference to God in this verse means “useful, gentle, pleasant, kind.” That is always how He is dealing with you. Always. He is a gentle, pleasant, and kind God leading you back to Him.

Whenever I am having a bad day, whenever I feel bad about myself, I always spend time hearing and thinking about the love God has for me. It is what keeps me anchored to Him.

I pray today that you would know that love and continue to grow in the knowledge of His love for you.

Beth

To hear a message about The Love of God, go here.