 | "with all lowliness and gentleness, |
Well that didn’t take long! Last week I mentioned that during the rest of the chapter of Ephesians Four we would get to the how of making progress in a godly manner, and here we are with the very next words from Apostle Paul’s pen! “With all lowliness and gentleness with longsuffering...” Not quite the kind of “God-like” we want to think of right? Right! This is the kind of God-like attitude that comes only after enduring much suffering and persecution. This is the “big girl panties” attitude we hear about from spectators who may have never walked in our shoes. This is “graduate level Christianity” as Os Hillman puts it often in his Workplace Believer Daily Devotions. Why do I say all this? Because lowliness and gentleness (meekness) are probably two of the greatest descriptions used for Jesus Christ Himself!
Walking Christ-like is not first the miracles and Gifts and power to raise the dead. Walking Christ-like is first and foremost an attitude of lowliness and gentleness (also defined as meekness), among those He came to serve. We can see it all through the Gospels, but nowhere more than in the account of His birth. He left majesty, authority, and Glory to take on the humblest and simplest of human existences in order to reach those who would otherwise NEVER have access to His throne. Does this make you weep?? I do… The kind of Supreme Being that it takes to accept and carry out such an act of service is beyond comprehension.
Thankfully we are not asked to make such a great sacrifice. This God-sized sacrifice has been made once and for all! However, as Believers, we have been generously endowed with Power and Gifts meant to be used in a manner worthy of the one who provided them. That means that as we progress in our walk, we don’t make a show or act superior (that’s not the “god-like” I am referring to). Instead more and more, we take on the nature of Christ’s lowliness and meekness as we progress in a godly manner in our walk with Christ and others. In other words, when people see us making progress in God, they don’t see a superstar, they see past us to Christ in us.
Growing my Walk with God and Others,
Dawn~
Walking Christ-like is not first the miracles and Gifts and power to raise the dead. Walking Christ-like is first and foremost an attitude of lowliness and gentleness (also defined as meekness), among those He came to serve. We can see it all through the Gospels, but nowhere more than in the account of His birth. He left majesty, authority, and Glory to take on the humblest and simplest of human existences in order to reach those who would otherwise NEVER have access to His throne. Does this make you weep?? I do… The kind of Supreme Being that it takes to accept and carry out such an act of service is beyond comprehension.
Thankfully we are not asked to make such a great sacrifice. This God-sized sacrifice has been made once and for all! However, as Believers, we have been generously endowed with Power and Gifts meant to be used in a manner worthy of the one who provided them. That means that as we progress in our walk, we don’t make a show or act superior (that’s not the “god-like” I am referring to). Instead more and more, we take on the nature of Christ’s lowliness and meekness as we progress in a godly manner in our walk with Christ and others. In other words, when people see us making progress in God, they don’t see a superstar, they see past us to Christ in us.
Growing my Walk with God and Others,
Dawn~
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