Inspirational Article From Joanne Lowe Index of Writings by Joanne Lowe on Gospel Web

BE GENTLE AND KIND

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.”

Isaiah 61: 1 - 3 King James Version

When God gave me the ministry of writing devotionals, He gave me these verses as my call to missions. This morning while I was doing dishes, God spoke to my heart and told me that He was disappointed with me and that I was not fulfilling these verses. I was shocked because to the best of my ability with the help of Jesus, I have been telling everyone that Jesus loves them and I have been encouraging and comforting people.

I asked Him “Why are You upset with me? What am I not doing or what I am doing wrong?” He replied “Yes, you are comforting and encouraging people and spreading My love, but you are being very critical of yourself. You expect to be perfect. My child, you are not perfect and you need to be gentle and kind to yourself just as you are gentle and kind with others. I love you just as much as I love the ones you are ministering to.”

It broke my heart when I realized that I had disappointed Him by not being gentle and kind to myself. No, I am not perfect and neither are you. We fail Him every day in some way but as He told me this morning, we need to be gentle and kind to ourselves just as we are to others. It’s no wonder that we don’t have peace all the time. It’s because we are trying to live up to the world’s standards. They expect Christians to be perfect. Christians are not perfect; they are sinners who have been saved by the mercy and grace of our precious Saviour.

If you are being harsh and critical of yourself, stop it. Jesus loves you and He accepts you just as you are. Yes, you will fail Him and you will disappoint Him but He loves you anyway. There is absolutely nothing that you can do to make Him stop loving you. His love is unconditional. We can’t buy His love and we will never deserve His love. Thank God for a loving Saviour who died on the cross so that we might have the forgiveness of our sins and live with Him for all eternity.

Joanne Lowe

October 18, 2007

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