Welcome to our ninth week of Living Beyond Yourself by Beth Moore. If you have been reading along with us, we’ve already covered love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness.  This week we looked at the fruit of Gentleness. We’ll be completing our study next week with a look at self-control.

(Image: Unsplash)

Our guest post this week is from Tonya Jones, author of PoeticWord.org She is currently aspiring to obtain her seminary degree in Biblical Counseling with theological studies of the New and Old Testament. Tonya now manages and operates her own publishing company called By Faith Publishing through which she aspires to help others spread the love of Christ through poetry.

Hello Everyone,
I pondered over how I could summarize this ninth week of such an amazing Bible study. Have any of you realized yet, that by studying the Fruit of the Spirit we were given a personal invitation to explore the inner and most sacred components of the heart of our Sovereign Creator, God Himself?  And what is so wonderfully beautiful about it, is that we were given front row seats with the Holy Spirit Himself being our tour guide helping us to understand each of their divine characteristics.

Around 5:30 am this Sunday, these tingling sensations in my brain awoke me from a deep sleep saying “that’s it!  That’s it!”   I sat up, wanting to run to the tallest building overlooking the world and watch these little light bulbs popping on as each of you came into the same truth about our amazing study.  I just knew that someone must have discovered what I just had. I wonder how many nights of revelations Beth must have experienced as she researched to find the best narratives for this study.  Since I realize that I could probably never put into words with clarity the revelation that suddenly invaded my thoughts last evening, and how my  heart overflows with this newfound adoration for our loving all-wise Heavenly Father, I will just stick to giving this week’s summary as best I can.

I applaud Beth Moore for taking these amazing characteristics of God and breaking them down for us to relate to. Her repository is the insights given by the inspired devout men of God, who remember were transformed by the Spirit themselves, “some remembering first-hand accounts” expressed as best they could in scripture the full Fruit of the Spirit giving us all an inside view of the most intriguing attributes of our Triune Creator.  Then ultimately, the most important and relevant truth that we all must realize is the only real way that any of us can experience the absolute fullness of this study is through our Faith.

In this ninth week, Beth explored the Greek word praotes, which when translated means gentleness. We learned that Gentleness in the Fruit of the Spirit has three important aspects submission, humility, and teachability.  We learned how all of these components make up a gentle behavior that can only be obtained through complete surrender and faith.  One can’t completely surrender unless one truly believes “correct”? They go hand in hand.

In conclusion, I’d like to say that I have truly enjoyed this study and look forward to sharing future studies at this wonderful Bible Café™.  I must end my summation now for fear that I began rambling to you about the amazing revelations that I just experienced.  For those of you who have children will understand this last point probably better than those who don’t.  When your child was born, your sole purpose became to teach this little person everything you could about their parents.  You instilled in them your beliefs, influenced them with your personalities, and proudly watched as they grew into adult versions of yourselves.  Imagine now how God the Father did with us at Creation.  Created in their image we needed to become familiar with the attributes that make us part of their unique structure.

Though we got sidetracked and fell into the temptation of the flesh, it was always evident that God the Father’s sole purpose was to help us come into our inheritance of the Fruit of the Spirit.  After all, we are His children and He wants us to be just like Him.  Scripture reveals how time after time God the Father breathed humility and gentleness toward our rebellious behavior. Yet the one part of the Trinity that I want to conclude with is the gentleness that embodied our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  How humbling it must have been for him to take on human form and leave the comforts of Heaven’s perfectness to come and be Jesus for all of us, to this wonderful Spirit of whom we are now studying.  I can’t think of a better teacher- can you?

The Sword of the Spirit is to injure Satan, not the body of Christ. -Beth Moore

Assignment For Next Week

  • Read Week Ten in the workbook
  • Listen to the Session Ten Audio (optional)
  • OR…Listen to the Session Ten Video (optional)

Living Beyond Yourself Bible Study