THE GENTLENESS OF GOD

“… Your right hand, O Lord, supports me; your gentleness has made me great." Psalm 18:35 Living Bible

It is balanced belief to speak of God’s greatness and glory, of His many attributes and marvelous actions, but we must all reflect on God’s gentleness as David did; Your patient gentleness, he said, that has made me what I am today!

After all, think of what we have now become. God does not express love because we are valuable, we are valuable because God loves us, and through many experiences of His gentleness, we have become what we are. For always, “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him” (Psalm 103:13, NIV).

Isaiah says of the Lord, in tenderness “he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.” (Isaiah 63:9, NIV) So that, our testimony is of the tenderness of God—His gentleness and kindness of spirit when we were the most wavering and vulnerable.

David became great, and in time he recounts with total humility that his rise to a place of honor and authority could be traced back to God’s dealing with him in tenderness of heart, with grace-filled gentleness. Which of us cannot repeat His words? Where would we be without God’s merciful tenderness at times when we needed it the most? It was God’s gentleness with us that made us what we have become. Our eyes should cloud up with grateful tears as we think of it! Truthfully, whatever success we have had in life can be attributed to God’s patience with us and His tenderness.

The gentleness of God is expressed in another way, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15, NIV) May we never forget the compassion shown to us by the Lord and the amazing longsuffering that was an expression of His tenderness also. The Lord clearly says it, “… for the sake of my praise I hold it back [judgment, wrath, and chastisement] … so as not to cut you off.” (Isaiah 48:9, NIV)

The tenderness of God has been shown to us with His amazing patience and so many times of unusual kindness. Which of us could have survived without it? We have all seen the gentleness of the Savior. He has been tender and compassionate to all of us.

A Christian who was renowned in his day openly confessed, “I have been a man of great sins and I fully deserve to be struck down, but God was merciful and patient, gentle and gracious. In time I repented of it all, and now I have a conscience as clear and clean as if I had never sinned.” Here is a testimony of someone who became a Christian of great influence saying with David, “your gentleness has made me great.” He was “gentle among you” (I Thessalonians 2:7).

Let us confess it—God gave us the greatest mercy combined with loving tenderness, and in time we realized how we deserved it the least! Yet it was “by the meekness and gentleness of Christ” (II Corinthians 10:1) that we are what we are now. And it has continued—once merciful gentleness is experienced, we look up and here comes another expression of it. How often has it come running after me till it broke my heart! God’s gentle mercy is without price because it is far beyond price.

So let us compare, for a moment, a candle to the sun—the candle is my goodness and the sun is grace, and we have no more right to have God’s tender mercy and loving gentleness than a mass murderer of children and women to have a Nobel Peace Prize.

And, knowing me and respecting you, I believe it would exhaust the hands of an angel to write down all the examples of God’s showing gentle mercy when we had earned harsh judgment.

And yet, let’s take a deep breath as we think about the gentleness of God. For this is not in any way “cheap grace.” Always in the background stands a holy God who sent His beloved Son to suffer terribly for us. So we must keep the cross before us. We have gentle mercy and costly grace to save us from God’s wrath. We keep both of these Biblical truths in balance. Of course, there is no conflict between God’s gentle mercy and God’s justice that brings judgment. Therefore, we must never be guilty of making the error of thinking God’s tenderness of love forbids His punishment of judgment.

If anyone reading these words would be considered to have had success in their Christian life, and I pray you have, it is because of His patient gentleness for you—that is what has made you great. So His gentleness with us powerfully teaches us to make our hearts pure, to make our focus on Him, and to abandon ourselves entirely to God’s plan for our lives.

The gentle grace of God was not sought or brought or wrought, for it has been bought! It is a free gift that we all need and can all know.

Thank God we all can be rescued by the tender, gentle grace of God that draws us to Jesus. So there is greatness that can come to all of us, but it is a greatness that comes by a recognition of His gentle grace that draws us into His perfect will.