Jesus Is Gentle And Lowly | Meditation 1
See all of our Meditation series here
In his book, Gentle and Lowly*, Dane Ortlund writes the following:
“This book is for... those of us who find ourselves thinking: "How could I mess up that bad--again?" It is for that increasing suspicion that God's patience with us is wearing thin. For those of us who know God loves us but suspect we have deeply disappointed him. Who have told others of the love of Christ yet wonder if- as for us- he harbors mild resentment.” (Page 13)
When we are stuck in sin. When the pain is too deep. Or when we just don't know which way to go spiritually, what we need is a guide. Someone to come and take us by the hand, reminding us of who Jesus is and how He cares for us. We will look to the book Gentle & Lowly to be that guide.
Over the next few weeks, we will post an article with a short quote from this book. Each article will end with a reflective prompt. The goal is to take a single, simple truth of what we learn about God, and to think/pray/worship God for that truth. Like we would savor a fine wine or delightful food. Meditation allows us to savor who God is. We turn this week to our first quote:
What elicits tenderness from Jesus is not the severity of the sin but whether the sinner comes to him.
If you are part of Christ’s own body, your sins evoke his deepest heart, his compassion and pity. He “takes part with you”—that is, he’s on your side. He sides with you against your sin, not against you because of your sin. He hates sin. But he loves you. We understand this, says Goodwin, when we consider the hatred a father has against a terrible disease afflicting his child—the father hates the disease while loving the child. Indeed, at some level the presence of the disease draws out his heart to his child all the more. - Gentle & Lowly
Reflective Prompt: Spend some time meditating and praying on how Jesus loves you even as you struggle with sin. Have you bought into legalism? The idea that you must “get out of your sin” before the heart of Christ is for you? Or, with Gospel texts like Psalm 103, do you see Christ as loving you even in your sin, which in turn helps us hate our sin?
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Warmly,
Josh.
