Another Day 13 Gentle & Lowly Lifestyle

Rebecca Adams
March 22, 2023

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28
Isaiah 46:1-5
Psalm 139:1-7
Revelation 3:19-21
Matthew 11:25-30
We cannot authentically love what we do not deeply know.
I was enamored with my husband from Day 1.
But it wasn’t until over two decades had passed and we walked dark pathways that I had an inkling of what love meant.
I was head over heels in love with my firstborn the moment I saw those 2 pink lines on the pregnancy test.
But my love for her multiplied with every day I spent with her, knowing her, arguing with her, and learning from her.
Love grew strong, fierce, and authentic in the days, years, and decades of learning to know.
Intimate familiarity changes everything.
Misconceptions flee, doubts dissolve, and the brilliance of authentic love shoots through like daybreak when we commit to deeply know another.
Who is this God who has called us to live together in the humble fabric of gentle love, seeking the other’s good, and partnering with them for peace and unity? (1 Thessalonians 5:12-28)
He is precisely who He has called us to be as we love One Another as brothers and sisters in the family He calls His Bride, the Church.
He is constantly humble toward us. (Philippians 2:7)
Perpetually extending us peace. (Colossians 3:15)
Continuously seeing the unseen. (Matthew 9:36)
Ceaselessly helping the helpless. (Psalm 116:6)
Patiently hemming us within His love on all sides. (Psalm 139:5)
Modeling submission to the law of Love. (John 13:34)
Steadfastly convicting us with kindness. (Romans 2:4)
Endlessly lowering Himself to bear our burdens. (Psalm 68:19)
He desires us.
He wants us.
Not just to be “His”, another “child” in His family to do His purpose,
but to both know Him and be lovingly known.
Is there anything as precious as being deeply known and authentically loved?
When the Lord Jesus Christ spoke of His own heart posture toward us,
He chose the words “gentle” and “lowly”.
“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. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29-30, ESV)
He spoke these words while describing what it means to know the Almighty God,
whom Christ perfectly represented.
To know Christ, is to know God Himself.
(Hebrews 1:3)
Hundreds of years before Jesus spoke these words, King David penned his understanding of the great I AM as the God who “day after day… bears our burdens.” (Psalm 68:19)
Daily.
Bears.
OUR.
Burdens.
Can we just say that again?
On the DAILY, sisters.
Love Himself,
who reigns in the heavenlies,
holds all power,
possesses all wisdom,
and is present in all places
stoops low to DAILY lift our burdens.
Forever the gentle and lowly of heart lowers Himself to shoulder-level with us only to rise and carry the weight upon Himself.
The weight of our hard things, our broken things, our wounded things, and infinitely greater, this is the God who stooped to the cross, naked and shamed, to bear the weight of the sin of the world. (1 John 2:2)
Do you see those precious words that next cross Jesus’ lips following His nondescript characterization of His heart?
“My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”
Not only does He carry our burden for us, and our sin for eternity if we will entrust our wretchedness to Him, but He gives life in return! In His humility, He teaches us to shoulder up next to Him, the wholly divine God, that we might learn His easy rhythms of life.
As several of our authors have noted in this Journey theme, it’s impossible for us to live out these One Another commands if we have not first submitted to the Spirit of God living inside of us. This is holy work; it’s His work, and we cannot muster or manufacture it ourselves.
But neither…
Can we live out these richly beautiful, life-giving commands if we do not intimately know the heart of the God in whom they perfectly abide.
We cannot authentically love what we do not deeply know.
Consider the Lord’s own words through His prophet Isaiah to His beloved people.
Come, know Him!
“Bel crouches; Nebo cowers. (false gods)
[…] The images [they] carry are loaded,
as a burden for the weary animal.
The gods cower; they crouch together;
they (false gods) are not able to rescue the burden,[…] “Listen to Me (true God),
[…You] who have been sustained from the womb,
carried along since birth.
I will be the same until your old age,
and I will bear you up when you turn gray.
I have made you, and I will carry you;
I will bear and rescue you.”
(Isaiah 46:1-4)
If you do not know the Lord as a gentle and lowly, burden-bearing God, then come on into His heart. Feast with Him, see His smile, hear His laughter, and confidently grow in authentically loving this God for being precisely who He claims to be in the pages of His Word.
To know Him, is to love Him!
And the proof of our love is made manifest when we stoop low with humble gentleness to lovingly carry another’s burdens just as Christ has done, and is doing right now, for us!
Can We Pray With You?
Prayer is central to our ministry as believers in Jesus as we carry eachother’s burdens and intercede for one another. Our team is honored to share the work of praying alongside you!
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