divine gentleness

in the past month or so, i've been attempting to do a study in the Bible on the fruits of the spirit. i have one of those old school Thompson Chain Reference Bibles that's about 30 lbs and could kill a small child ... it has an amazing concordance in the back with all the passages that link together, etc.

so i made it through kindness and have moved onto gentleness this week.

in the concordance, it's classified as Divine Gentleness. Reading the passages that related in the Old Testament brought me to this passage.

Isaiah 42:3 says "A bruised reed He will not break; and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish"

it took me a little while to ponder this to understand what this had to do with gentleness. the conclusion i came to is that when God is showing gentleness, He does not cut down that which is damaged. A bruised reed and a smoking wick are almost completely useless. A smoking wick is almost died out and it's really hard to re-light it. but God will not extinguish it. He still has a purpose for it and He still can heal it and restore it to it's original use.

i guess to me i would have always thought this pointed to the mercy of God, but not so much His gentleness.

so this week i'm going to work on exhibiting some of this divine gentleness. it's hard for me, i'm so judgemental at times. when i see someone who is failing and struggling, my first instict is to judge them and think harshly about them.

i'm working on this