The Fruit of the Spirit is GENTLENESS.
Our background photo today puts us on I-5 during the early morning commute into downtown Seattle. A particular stretch of I-5, just south of the Shoreline exists, brings commuters around a corner and there, opening up before them is Mt. Rainier! … huge and looming, majestic and awe-inspiring!
Traffic instantaneously slows! Always! (as is evidenced by all the brake-lights in our background photo) Congestion backs up, back around the corner and even further for a mile or more. Even though the vast majority of our city is agnostic and atheistic … traffic always slows down as people subconsciously respond to God’s majesty and power revealed in His creation.
Our daily verse today states: “Let your GENTLENESS be evident to all. The Lord is near.” (Philippians 4:5) It’s curious that the author included the part at the end of the verse that the Lord is near. Clearly the presence of GENTLENESS in our lives in a clear indication of the presence of God in our lives!
Just as morning commuters on a busy, rushing I-5 instantaneously slow down in a sub-conscious response to the majesty and grandeur of God’s creation, in much the same way, people will take note, sub-consciously or consciously, when our lives are characterized by GENTLENESS.
The Holy Spirit – the very presence of God – is with us and in us! It absolutely will show!
The Holy Spirit will empower and enable us to live lives of GENTLENESS … and the result will be that others will be aware that the presence of God is here! The presence of God is clearly with this person of GENTLENESS!
The Fruit of the Spirit is GENTLENESS.
