“The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven't yet come to the end of themselves. We're still trying to give orders, and interfering with God's work within us.” ― A.W. Tozer

Each of these attitudes begins with the promise of the makarios life. Obviously this way of living is extremely important to Jesus. With this next statement you will see why the makarios life is such a huge part of the purposes of God.

To the ones with a gentle attitude Jesus will now give the earth. Add this to what He has already promised and this kingdom message is getting to be something special. No wonder Jesus calls it good news.

I love our earth. It is full of beauty and wonder. But this earth is not the gift Jesus speaks of here. Our world is temporary by design. It was never meant to be the permanent home of God’s creation. When the time arrives that God set for this world to be over, He will bring in a new one. This new earth will always be under the sovereign, righteous rule of God. Right now His will is not the way of life every moment of every day here on this earth. Under His kingdom rule in the new world it will be. Everything there will always be right. There will not be one thing out of harmony with God. We will all be perfectly right in how we think, how we relate to God and how we respond to the wonderful new way of life there.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away,” (Revelation 21:1)

“But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.“            (2 Peter 3:13)

This future earth is God’s plan for us humans. The one we live on now is only a temporary dwelling place. That sure changes the way we should view our lives here. Why then do we spend so much time worrying about the here and now? This is extremely important because how we view the future has everything to do with determining our ability to have a gentle attitude during the days we live on this earth.

What does the word gentle mean? This is an attitude that we inflexible humans will have an enormous amount of difficulty accepting. Only if we become poor in spirit, mourn for our condition and surrender to God’s kingdom rule are we able to have this gentle attitude that Jesus speaks of here.

The Greek word translated gentle means; a mildness of disposition and gentleness of our spirit as seen in our attitude toward God in which we accept His dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting. Just reading this definition of gentleness does not make it that difficult to accept as the attitude Jesus says we must have in order to inherit the future earth. The difficulty comes when life suddenly turns ugly and all our nephesh wants to do is get mad at God or someone else for allowing something so bad to happen to us. After all, we have become poor in spirit, mourned and surrendered to the rule of God. Shouldn’t that be enough to make Jesus happy with who we are and how we are living? Why would He allow bad things to happen to us? What more does He want? These are typical responses we humans have when experiencing situations that may bring us to our knees with emotional, physical or psychological pain.

Nowhere does Jesus say that following Him and becoming what we are supposed to be will be an easy way of life on this earth. In fact, He says just the opposite and demonstrated this with His own life.

“Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.” (John 15:20)

“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Jesus was loved by many of those He came in contact with but He was also hated, despised and persecuted by many. So what kind of attitude did Jesus display during His life on earth?

“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29, 30)

The Greek word translated gentle in this passage is the same word used in, blessed are the gentle for they shall inherit the earth. So first off, Jesus is telling us to have the same attitude He had, which means He accepted what happened to Him as good and being from God, therefore He did not dispute or resist the circumstances of His life.

In the song, El Condor Pasa, Paul Simon writes:

“I’d rather be a sparrow than a snail.

Yes I would. If I could,

I surely would.

I’d rather be a hammer than a nail.

Yes I would. If I could,

I surely would.”

Paul Simon captured exactly how any normal human being thinks about life. Who wants to be a snail or a nail? Who wants to be taken advantage of or hurt because of the hammer of bad circumstances? We would all rather be the sparrow or the hammer. But this is not God’s way. And just as a reminder, the gospel of the kingdom’s purpose is to restore us back to the people we are supposed to be. Jesus is gentle, so when He says we are to be gentle He is only asking us to be what He is and Jesus is the perfect image of God.

Not only is Jesus gentle but He also says He is humble. The Greek word translated humble means, possessing nothing yet receiving all things from God. This attitude of humility works hand in hand with being gentle. As you can see from the meaning of the word humble, God is not interested in filling up our caches with material things while living here on this earth. Those who possess an attitude of accepting their circumstances in life and not fighting God over them will inherit the future perfect earth as theirs and the fullness of the makarios life now.

This attitude of gentleness or of accepting God’s dealings with us as good and therefore not resisting or disputing them, is absolutely fundamental to the image of God and the makarios life. There are two aspects to this attitude that will make the difference in how we handle our circumstances. The first is, we must see ourselves in the hands of God. By this I mean that when we surrender to God’s kingdom rule we are placing our life in His hands to do with us as He pleases. In doing this we must also realize His will and rule are always right.  

If we accept God’s will and rule and six months later an unexpected tragedy happens in our life, we can only experience the makarios life IF we are able to accept God’s dealings with us as always good. This is relatively easy to do when everything is going well, but in the middle of difficult times comes the real test of gentleness.

How then do we accept things that are bad as being good? This is the second aspect to the attitude of gentleness we must have – we must be more concerned with the future than we are with the present. Pause and think about this for a moment before moving on. This is not an easy concept to accept. Concepts often get lost in words and never reach our heart and soul where they need to take over and permeate our nephesh. If our focus is more concerned with experiencing an easy and pleasant life now, then we will never have the makarios life. Jesus addresses this in Matthew 6:19-23:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

The key to all this is found in the bold section that says, “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” The heart Jesus speaks of is our nephesh, our real living being. Whatever we focus our time and attention on becomes our treasure, or that which is most important to us, the living being and real person we are.

If we focus mostly on life on earth, then whatever happens to us here dictates the quality of our life. The quality of our life will only be good if our circumstances are good. But if our focus is on the future life under God’s kingdom rule and this becomes the most important thing to us, then what happens here on earth will have a completely different implication concerning our life.

When I say things here on earth, I am referring to how we are treated by the circumstances of our life. If our eye is focused on life here and now, well, bad is going to happen. That’s just the way life is for everyone. No one can escape the tragedies, troubles, trials and struggles that happen in this world. These issues are just the norm of life. So, if our focus is on attaining a good and easy life now and tragedy strikes, then how dark our nephesh will become because our treasure is now full of ugliness and pain.

The way to become what God designed us to be is to surrender to His kingdom rule and let His will be done in our life without fighting and resisting it. This does not mean we acquiesce to every circumstance of life. Jesus tells us in His next attitude response to the gospel of the kingdom that we are to go after what is right with everything we have. But God’s righteous ways are not the normal way of life here. Evil and wrong does happen. When we can change evil into good then, by all means, we should do whatever we can to make right happen. Whenever right does triumph over wrong, the kingdom of God has come near just as Jesus said when He cast out a demon or healed a diseased person.

“But if I cast out demons, by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” (Matthew 12:28)

But forcing his rule over a singular wrong situation is not the same as when He will rule in such a way that all evil and bad are extinguished.

What do we do when we have no control over the bad that happens in life? Our attitude of gentleness, allowing God to be in control of our circumstances, must dictate our response. This can only happen when we have surrendered our will to God’s purposes. We can tell if we have surrendered by how we react to life’s bad circumstances. This will be seen in our attitude of gentle surrender to God even if our circumstances are devastating. God is far greater than any circumstance of life. He can deliver us or carry us through the deepest of problems. The important issue is we maintain our attitude of acceptance toward God’s dealings with us and resist the temptation to get angry at God for allowing such difficulties to hurt us.

If we live in a world full of evil and bad what does that tell us about God and His plan? It shouts loud and clear that His kingdom rule has not completely come into our world at this time. Does that mean God is not in control? No, it does not mean that at all. We know He has a plan running through the pages of life on earth and it is heading toward the time when the power of His sovereign, righteous rule will do away with everything wrong and contrary to His perfect will. Until that time God allows evil and bad to exist and He will use them to accomplish His plan in spite of our transgressor/sinner ways.

The Bible is full of stories that illustrate this. The life of Joseph in the Old Testament is just one of these illustrations. His life was full of bad circumstances that would have caused many a human to give up and become either full of bitterness toward his own family who was responsible for most of his misery and pain, or, become bitter toward God who allowed it to happen. But Joseph chose to have a gentle attitude and surrender to God’s plan while keeping his eyes focused on the future. Look what he said in the presence of his brothers who caused him the majority of his pain and misery. Remember, by this time Joseph had the power to pay them back for everything they did to him.

      “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order       to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.” (Genesis 50:19, 20)

Everyone loves the story of Joseph, until they experience a little of the pain and misery he had to go through. It is so easy to appear surrendered to God in the good of life but it is uncommonly difficult to do so in the trenches. This is why being gentle is not an easy attitude to have for it is not the natural way of the transgressor. It is only natural to someone in the image of God whose eye is on the future, whose treasure is in heaven and whose nephesh with its passions, appetites, desires, emotions, thoughts, spirit and soul is surrendered to God’s will. The words, “not my will Lord, but Yours” that Jesus said to His Father right before going to the cross must dominate our conversations with God in order to be gentle.

During one of the worst periods of persecution in the history of the church the highly respected pastor Polycarp, one of the early followers of Christ, said this as he stood before the governor who was trying to get him to bow down and acknowledge that he was a god.

“I am a Christian. If you want to know what that is, set a day and listen.”

“Persuade the people,” answered the governor.

 Polycarp said, “I would only explain to you, but not to them.”

         “Then I’ll throw you to the beasts.”

         “Bring on the beasts,” said Polycarp.

         “If you scorn the beasts, I’ll have you burned.”

“You try to frighten me with the fire that burns for an hour, and you forget the fire of hell that never goes out.”

        The governor called to the people, “Polycarp says he is a Christian.”

Then the mob let loose. “This is the teacher of Asia,” they shouted, “the father of the Christians, the destroyer of our gods.”

So Polycarp, praying that his death would be an acceptable sacrifice, was burned at the stake. – Church History, by Bruce L. Shelley

This is what it looks like to have a gentle attitude. This is a mildness of disposition and gentleness of our spirit as seen in our attitude toward God in which we accept His dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting. Only with this attitude can we experience the makarios life in the midst of ugly circumstances.

Let me close this chapter with how Jesus says we are to pray as people in the kingdom, which shows the gentle attitude under the sovereign, righteous rule of God. This is the attitude of gentleness that will inherit the new earth and experience the makarios life now in a world full of ugliness.

“Our Father who is in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9, 10)

 

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