Gentleness: A Fruit Of The Spirit

Gentleness involves true and active consideration for others. It includes not wanting to hurt anyone or cause anyone pain. Ephesians 4:32 says: “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” Colossians 3:12 says: Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering.” Now, if we are to have this fruit of the spirit we’ve got to spend time with Him to be like Him. It’s through the Spirit of God that we attain this fruit called Gentleness. It cannot be attained without a dedicated, consecrated prayer life. The carnal man (the flesh) takes over when we don’t pray. We can become hateful, unkind, hurtful and spiteful to others. This displeases The Lord and is a sin. Then, we must seek forgiveness and repent. Then we can become sweet again! The Fruit of The Spirit has nine Godly virtues that should be lived daily in the Christ-like, sanctified life. They are manifested by the Holy Ghost through us if we are dedicated and consecrated to God and have daily communion with Him.

   You see, as we pray and seek The Lord daily and read and study His Word, we become closer to Him and He begins to work in our hearts. He begins to “weed out” those things that should not be there. The inner man becomes clean and pure. We become a Holy Vessel that God can use. We feel clean and pure, but to stay clean and pure before Him, we cannot skip our prayer time. This is not something that can be put off. We must be consistent and persistent in our daily prayer time.

   There was another meaning I found that said: Gentleness is a disposition to be gentle, soft-spoken, kind, even-tempered, cultured and refined in character and conduct. Let’s look a minute at the meaning of two words in that definition. Cultured: The training and refining of the mind, our manners, or the result of this Refined: Made free from impurities; purified; free from vulgarity in manners and speech.

   So, through prayer, God trains and refines our minds, our hearts, our manners and our speech. We become free from all spiritual impurities (all sin) and we become more like Him!

   Praise The Lord! We can do all things through Christ which strengthens us! May God bless you and draw us all close to Him!

Verses for reference- James 3:17; 2 Timothy 2:24-26; Titus 3:1-2

Written By Sis. Teresa Dayton