Today we're going to take a posture of peace by expecting gentleness from God.
Posture is a short audible fist bump to remind you God is with you in everything.
Together we're going to be emboldened to take a daily posture of perfect peace.
Jesus told us in Matthew chapter 11 verses 29 and 30 he said take my yoke upon you and learn
from me. I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find a rest for your souls.
My yoke is easy and my burden is light. Did you know that God is relentlessly gentle with you?
As a posture community we have been becoming well acquainted with the nature of God who he is
and what he is like and before I understood you know who God was and what he was like
crisis, conflict, hard situations would come and I would react to the chaos thinking
in fear and anxiety oh I don't know what to do instead of responding to who God is
and declaring no worries I know who I'm with. You know I used to think that the fruit of the
spirit was a measuring stick for my performance. If the fruit was present in my life if there was
peace and joy in my life I thought I must be doing well like I must be performing well.
I somehow earned this and if the fruit you know seemed gone if people were not kind to me if life
was not gentle I would think oh no I must have done something to deserve this and it was like
I had so much more confidence in my ability to take myself out of Christ than I had in Christ's
ability to keep me in him. My expectation was on me and not on him and one day in a very hard
situation God said Linz do you know that I love you and I was like yes you're God you love me
you love everyone and he said do you know that I always love you and I said yes it was a little
bit more hesitant this time but yes and he said do you know that I'm always gentle with you
and I thought always like even when I screw up even when I fail and I sensed him say in that moment
I won't be who I am not we don't change God he changes us our behavior good or bad never makes
him act outside of himself and and that was the day for me that I just stopped trying to talk
God into my reality and I let him talk me into his reality and you may struggle with what I'm saying
because you might think that what I'm saying is that God just lets us get away with things
but what I'm saying is God makes a way for us to be transformed into his image and likeness always
God is not fixated on who we have been because our old sinful nature it died with Christ and
when you receive Jesus as your savior you're made totally new and alive to God and God is totally
focused on the you who is alive the you who is in Jesus and God's gentleness towards us
demonstrates his confidence in the finished work of Jesus you know there are days that I might not
feel very confident in the finished work based on my performance or my behavior but God is always
confident in his work and it's his gentleness towards us that opens our hearts and our minds
to receiving all he came to give us his gentleness stirs a calm confidence in us and it just creates
this atmosphere in our relationship with him of total trust where we are transformed by his nature
towards us you can expect God to be gentle with you and that expectation will change you
you'll gain a confidence you you won't be afraid to come to him you won't be anxious about stepping
out in faith you won't panic when trials come or mistakes are made you won't lash out when others
fail you you won't throw away your confidence Jesus told us what we can expect he said he told
us in Matthew 11 like I read we can expect rest and gentleness and
humility, a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light. And by the way, this
is just a fun truth. Do you know that word easy, when Jesus is talking about
his easy yoke, is the same word used for goodness or kindness in Romans 2 for
that we talked about in episode 80? Go back and watch episode 80 with that in
mind. Jesus is really, he is really this delightful. There's no condemnation in
Jesus. There is freedom in Jesus. He is so confident in the work he has done for
you and you can be confident to make his gentleness and all of his nature towards
you your expectation today. The promise of perfect peace is found in Isaiah 26
3. In Hebrew, it is shalom, shalom, meaning complete wholeness. Nothing
missing, nothing broken. This is who you are in Jesus because of Jesus. You are a
living testimony of Jesus's ultimate win. With every step you take today, you're
putting Jesus's victory on display and Satan's defeat on replay.
you