Is being docile a characteristic of being a mature disciple? What does that mean and how do we accomplish that? Through the Beatitudes, this devotion looks at why disciples should be willing to be taught and how what God expects differs from the worldview.
Nuggets
- With God, it is all about fixing our relationships with Him.
- Being blessed is all about loving and obeying God.
- We become humble when we put the past in its place — in the past.
- Spiritually poor has to do with being aware of the fact that we are spiritually dead without God.
- The poor in spirit are actually wealthy.
My word for the year is self-discipline. When I was researching another post, I came across Vincent’s sermon entitled The Lesson of Ripeness. It talks about the need to grow in our relationship with God.
One thing Vincent talked about was docility. He said, “By reason of time a Christian should have become a teacher in the matter of habitual consistency of life, obedience, and docility.”
Yes, this talks about becoming a teacher. We, however, have been looking at this as becoming a mature disciple.
Growing into a mature faith should be a goal of all of us. It takes self-discipline to reach it.
So, what is docility? And how are disciples supposed to be that? Doesn’t that have a bad connotation?
What better way to find out than by taking a good look at the Beatitudes?
Devotions in the The Beatitudes Show Us How to be Docile series
Let's Put It into Context
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines docile as “easily taught” or “easily led or managed.”
As disciples, we are to be willing to be taught by the promptings of the Holy Spirit. It is through His guidance that we become mature disciples.
Some may say that the “easily led or managed” has more of a negative connotation. To them, the better definition would be “easy to be controlled.”
The world would look at that as a bad thing. Disciples, though, look at it as we are being submissive to God – which is what He calls us to do.
What Is Poor in Spirit?
“Blessed are the poor in spirit …” (Mt. 5: 3 CSB)
Watson describes blessedness as “… the perfection of a rational creature; it is the whetstone of a Christian’s industry; the height of his ambition; the flower of his joy; the desire of all men.”
Let’s roost on perfection for a second. Holy means to be set apart, perfect, and pure. If we look at perfection as the act or the process of becoming, that is sanctification.
Now, let’s go to the ambition part. We’ve talked about this before. “But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him” (Jer. 17: 7 NIV)
You see, with God, it is all about fixing our relationships with Him. That is where our ambition should be placed. That should be our goal — becoming mature disciples.
When we grow in our relationship with God, “the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love” (Ps. 147: 11 NIV).
We’ve talked about fear of the Lord quite a bit lately. We learned in What Does Fear of the Lord Mean? that the fear of the Lord means reverence and love, not terror. Walking in the Spirit should promote the fear of the Lord.
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Being blessed is all about loving and obeying God. When we are poor in spirit, God will bless us.
Growing up, I had no clue what “… poor in spirit …” (Mt. 5: 3 CSB) meant. Jordan and Blackall wrote that poor in spirit had the following components:
- Humility — “Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience” (Col. 3: 12 CSB).
- Contentment — “But godliness with contentment is great gain” (I Tim. 6: 6 CSB).
- Submission — “Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (Jas. 4: 7 CSB).
- Gratitude — “But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the LORD” (Jnh. 2: 9 NIV).
- Patience — “Be still in the presence of the LORD, and wait patiently for him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes” (Ps. 37: 7 NLT).
- Trust and hope in God — “Sovereign LORD, you are God! Your covenant is trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant” (II Sam. 7: 28 NIV).
Rees explained it as being aware of the fact that we are spiritually poor. We can do nothing to save ourselves. If we do not have Jesus in our lives, we are dead in our sins.
Wait a second. Duryea talked about censoriousness. I didn’t really use that term, but we just talked about that. It is about being critical of others.
Duryea said that we are more critical of others because of being poor in nature rather than poor in spirit.
Okay. I have to think about this. Poverty of spirit is really about knowing we are nothing without God. The humility, contentment, submission, and gratitude provide a peace.
Poverty in nature is the opposite. It is pride, distress, aggression, condemnation, and censure. I can see where that would make us more critical of others.
Alford made the comment that we become humble when we put the past in its place — in the past. We can puff up our importance based on what has happened in the past. But it can also wreck our contentment.
If we aren’t content, we don’t have the confidence that God can provide for us. If we are prideful, we don’t have humility.
When we aren’t content and are prideful, we aren’t looking to the cross. That does not make us poor in spirit.
So, being poor in the spirit is about not focusing on us but focusing on God. It is submitting to Him and living the kind of life that imitates Him.
A poor in spirit person is one who sees that there is still a lot of the sanctification process ahead. This disciple knows that we will always fall short while we are here in these earthly bodies.
What Is the Kingdom of Heaven?
“… for the kingdom of heaven is theirs” (Mt. 5: 3 CSB)
What is the kingdom of heaven? “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev. 21: 1-2 CSB).
Rees wrote that it is a “kingdom of peace, righteousness, and joy.”
- Peace — “You give peace of mind to all who love your Law. Nothing can make them fail” (Ps. 119: 165 CEV).
- Righteousness — “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act, making your righteousness shine like the dawn, your justice like the noonday” (Ps. 37: 5-6 CSB).
- Joy — “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 15: 13 NLT).
James 2: 5 says, “Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?” (CSB). Now, James isn’t talking money, prestige, and possessions.
What James is saying is that the poor in spirit are actually wealthy. When God has forgiven us of our sins and made us spiritually alive again, our rewards are huge. The wealth of this world is dwarfed.
Richard III, in Shakespeare’s play of that name, said his kingdom for a horse. We get this kingdom for being children of God (Jn. 1: 12). It is our reward for believing and obeying.
Making the Connections
Watson made a good point. This is the Sermon on the Mount. It is very early in Jesus’ ministry. Watson said, “Christ begins with this, and we must begin here if ever we be saved. Poverty of spirit is the foundation stone on which God lays the superstructure of glory.”
Ooo, baby. I can just hear worldview believers objecting to Duryea’s comment. They are going to insist that disciples are much more critical of others than they are.
To me, many worldview people just want to do whatever they want to do (ie. whatever sin they want to commit) and not be held responsible for it. They are fighting against submitting to the One true God.
But then, many who hold their worldview believe that, if we do not agree with them, we hate them. To me, that is being much more critical of others than disciples are.
Expecting — and trying to force others — to believe as they do is being censorious. Our witnessing to them is not forcing them to accept Jesus as their personal Savior.
Those holding the worldview are not going to be blessed. Oh, they may do okay in this world.
They are not going to be rewarded in the end. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Mt. 25: 34 CSB emphasis added).
Making the Connections to Self-Discipline
If we think about being easily taught, God will teach us through trials humility and patience. The results of the trials should be contentment, submission, gratitude, trust, and hope.
The discipline comes in when we discipline ourselves to choose God daily. (In the most difficult trials, it may feel like we are choosing God each minute!) The discipline will help us to focus on God, Who will give us strength (Ps. 45: 1-3).
How Do We Apply This?
- We have to live our faith. That means being humble, content, submissive, patient, thankful, trusting, and hopeful.
- We have to seek God and His blessings — peace, righteousness, and joy.
- We have to empty ourselves of us as Jesus did (Phil. 2: 7).
- We have to see that we cannot be sanctified and self-disciplined without God.
As we dig deeper and deeper into God’s Word, we will see more clearly our unworthiness — except for the admission of our sins, the belief in Jesus as Savior and Redeemer, and confession of God as Sovereign Lord. It is then we truly become poor in spirit and can inherit the kingdom of heaven.
Father God. We are unworthy. We are trapped in these bodies that possess a sinful nature. There is only one reason we are worthy enough to come to You. That is because we claim Your Son Jesus as our personal Savior. Help us to exhibit the characteristics of humility, contentment, submission, patience, gratitude, trust, and hope. Sanctify us so that we may become righteous like You. Amen.
What do you think?
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