{"id":634,"date":"2017-05-29T15:48:13","date_gmt":"2017-05-29T21:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/?p=634"},"modified":"2017-06-03T17:14:45","modified_gmt":"2017-06-03T23:14:45","slug":"gentle-and-lowly-in-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/considerations\/gentle-and-lowly-in-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"Gentle and Lowly in Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.\u00a0 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.\u00a0 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.\u201d<\/em><\/span>
\n – Jesus (Mat 11:28-30)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/a>I’ve heard it told that\u00a0our Lord condescended to become man; that he laid aside His divinity in order to become like any one of us mortal humans. \u00a0How I always interpreted that message was of a superior being voluntarily becoming a lesser being while retaining his status of superior. \u00a0For all intents and purposes he was as weak and fallible as me, but the difference was he chose to do so for only a while, and could re-assume his superiority at any time.<\/p>\n

That thought satisfied me for many years, until recently when His words, “I am gentle and lowly in heart”<\/em><\/span>, struck me. \u00a0I realized there was really no humility in a superior being deigning to become less – for a time – with the option to step out at any time. \u00a0And so if that was the case, where does the humility come into play?<\/p>\n

Then it occurred to me. \u00a0He did not deign<\/strong> to become human because He was God. \u00a0He just went ahead and became human because He was Him – it’s just what He does. \u00a0Therein lies the humility. \u00a0Because He is humble, humility exists, and because He is humble whether Lord or mere man, humility is demonstrated. \u00a0And by the same token He is gentle because that is what He is, whether Lord or mere man.<\/p>\n

\n

Because He is humble, humility exists, and because He is humble whether Lord or mere man, humility is demonstrated.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now I don’t presume to speak for the Lord or to know His thoughts, but I do have His word, “For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” – Paul (1 Cor 2:16)<\/em><\/span>. \u00a0For that reason I feel confident in\u00a0saying\u00a0that our Lord did not consider He was stepping down to something lower than He was when He took on human\u00a0limitations, or when He ate with and taught sinners, or when He washed the disciples’ feet. \u00a0He just did what He does in accordance with His character.<\/p>\n

And here’s the even more amazing part. \u00a0We needed saved from our fallen condition – our sinfulness could not exist in the presence of His holiness any more than darkness\u00a0can exist when the light is turned on – so He became man and did ALL the work. \u00a0Not 50-50 with man, or 70-30, or any other portion. \u00a0He did it all.<\/p>\n

And now this gentle and humble Creator of everything invites us to wear his yoke – to be driven and steered under His hand and direction. \u00a0Accept that, and He does all<\/strong> the work.<\/p>\n

Seriously.<\/p>\n

The Lord has given His Spirit to everyone that receives Him. \u00a0That’s the same Spirit that moved and inspired Jesus of Nazareth to live a perfect and sinless life, and to heal the sick, and to free the possessed and oppressed, and to teach the wisdom and good news of His Kingdom. \u00a0Take His yoke and that same Spirit within us\u00a0does all the work. \u00a0We just learn to respond to His guidance and inspiration.<\/p>\n

Consider who our Lord was speaking to – those who labor\u00a0and are heavy laden. \u00a0We all have our yokes, driven by the hands of our creditors, banks, employers, authorities, ambitions, expectations and more. \u00a0We strive day after day in our own strength to meet the demands – unending demands that are neither gentle because of the weariness, nor humble because we can not expect much help in our exertions. \u00a0Jesus is inviting us to not just take His yoke upon us, but to remove the heavy laden yoke as well. \u00a0He invites us to trust Him that He will take care of all the work and we can now respond under the gentle hand of a kind Master, instead of the demanding hands of the world.<\/p>\n

That alone is an awesome offer! \u00a0But wait, there’s more \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

We are very much the product of our experiences, much of which comes from the burdensome yokes we have carried over time. \u00a0We are impatient, intolerant, judgmental, even mean-spirited more often that we could comfortably admit. \u00a0Jesus invites us to a new experience – gentleness and humility. \u00a0The more we see this demonstrated under His yoke, the more it begins to define who we are. \u00a0And the more it defines who we are the more we see Him doing all the work – and the more others begin to be drawn to His invitation because they see it in us.<\/p>\n

\n

The Lord has given His Spirit to everyone that receives Him. \u00a0That’s the same Spirit that moved and inspired Jesus of Nazareth to live a perfect and sinless life, and to heal the sick, and to free the possessed and oppressed, and to teach the wisdom and good news of His Kingdom.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

At this point it could be asked if we are being invited to neglect our\u00a0obligations in this world. \u00a0Not at all. \u00a0The Lord knows we have bills to pay and obligations to meet, and He is concerned for those. \u00a0He doesn’t ask us to stop paying our bills, but instead to wear His yoke as He guides us and directs us in all things – including our obligations. \u00a0When we go to work or conduct business or go shopping we are no longer under the burdensome\u00a0yoke of worldly man, but under the gentle yoke of Jesus, and our entire day of activity is inspired, directed, and tempered by His Spirit within us.<\/p>\n

Consider Paul’s encouragement to the Corinthians:<\/p>\n

“Each one of you should stay the way you were when God chose you. If you were a slave when God chose you, don’t let that bother you. But if you can be free, then do it. If you were a slave when the Lord chose you, you are now free in the Lord. You belong to the Lord. In the same way, if you were free when you were chosen, you are now Christ’s slave. God paid a high price for you, so don’t be slaves to anyone else. Brothers and sisters, in your new life with God, each one of you should continue the way you were when God chose you.”<\/em><\/span>
\n – Paul (1 Cor 7:20-24)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Your current situation doesn’t surprise Him or change His call to you. \u00a0If you are enslaved in obligation or\u00a0debt trust that Jesus’ Spirit will be working within you to meet your obligations, manage\u00a0your spending, and lead you out of that slavery. You only need to be attentive to His guidance, and learn His way of gentleness and humility – to take His yoke upon you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.\u00a0 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.\u00a0 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.\u201d – Jesus (Mat 11:28-30) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[82,79,80,81,54,47],"class_list":{"0":"post-634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-considerations","8":"tag-character","9":"tag-gentleness","10":"tag-humility","11":"tag-invitation","12":"tag-master","13":"tag-spirit","14":"entry","15":"override"},"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/05\/humble.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/05\/humble.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Master of the House","author_link":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/author\/master-of-the-house\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}