The Wisdom of Accepted Tenderness

February 25, 2016

The Wisdom of Accepted Tenderness

Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30

Brennan Manning paraphrased the words of Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30 and wrote, “Come on, all you who are wiped out, confused, bewildered, lost, beat up, scarred, scared, threatened, depressed and I’ll enlighten your mind with wisdom and fill your heart with tenderness that I have received from my Father.”   Forgiveness has already been granted to the sinner, and all the sinner needs is wisdom to accept their forgiveness and repent, and God provides that wisdom through His prevenient grace. Then the sinner gets to live confidently in the wisdom of accepted tenderness.

This is the manifestation of the first beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Living in the wisdom of accepted tenderness is living in the Kingdom of Heaven.

This is a truth that takes some time to process and internalize so that it takes root in your life. When it does, it becomes a part of the truth that sets you free.

At the heart of accepted tenderness is God’s unconditional pardon of sinners. Everything in our culture drives us to condition God’s pardon on our behavior. Some people believe God pardons us because we repent and seek forgiveness, as if our contrition justifies God’s pardon. Not so. Our pardon was secured by the death and resurrection of Jesus, which occurred while we were still sinners. Repentance is to change one's way of life and comes after the sinner accepts God’s pardon, God’s tenderness, which has already been extended.

The unconditional nature of God’s grace, love, forgiveness and pardon is unfathomable to our minds which are so entrenched in the Western Civilization culture of performance-based-acceptance. It may be helpful to spend time meditating on the woman in John 8, the return of the prodigal in Luke 15, and the last-to-arrive laborers in Matthew 20. After pondering these passages, ask yourself, “What did the woman do to justify Jesus’ words of, “Neither do I condemn you”; what did the son do to justify his father’s extravagant welcome home; and what did the last-to-arrive laborers do to justify receiving a full day’s wages?

One day I heard God’s Spirit speak to my spirit, “You are my beloved son, with whom I am delighted and upon whom my favor rests.” What did I do to justify the tenderness of the Father’s words to me? Not a thing. Even my wisdom to accept God’s tenderness was a response to God taking the first step through His prevenient grace. What was I to do in the face of such grace?

I blushed and said, “Thank you Father. Please help me make real in my life this prayer: My life does not belong to me. My life belongs to You. By creation and redemption my life belongs to You, my Abba Father.”

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.