"Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength."
So what is real strength? I believe real strength is seen when power to crush is cradled in a gentle embrace. Gentleness is when brute force is able but willingly submitted to God as its source.
"We confide in our strength without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it." Letter to William Carmichael and William Short; June 30, 1793.
The Apostle Paul wrote that his strength is made perfect in weakness. And to me that is a spirit broken, then yielded and submitted to the Father's power to piece it together again.
A man with real strength can be meek without timidity--powerfilled without boasting of it. According to Henry Ibsen, "The strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone." The Enemy of the People; 1882.
I have witnessed that kind of strength in my husband. Patrick Henry is quoted as saying, "Give me liberty or give me death." My husband has stood alone in the midst of rebuke, misunderstandings and criticisms on more than one occasion. His actions said, "Give me Jesus or give me nothing." When he could have produced evidence against his accusers, he didn't. When he could have exerted his influence and exposed his adversaries from a pulpit, he didn't. When he could have defended himself, he didn't. To me, that is strength. That is a man with trusting faith in a faithful God.
But the true test of his strength was not in his refraining from taking action. It was in the releasing of all power and evidence of his defense to His Lord. He never lost one night's sleep. He never missed one step in his ministerial call to visit, to encourage, to edify. He held no grudges. He fostered no bitterness. Even when it cost him his job, his financial security and pride. Some called that weak. And Biblically they are correct. For in his weakness God was his strength. Sometimes I would get so frustrated with him. I'd want to run to his defense. I'd want him to stand up for his rights and face his accusers. Oddly enough, I've learned that he did just that. His silence said, "I am for peace, but when I speak they are for war." {Ps.120:7 He left them to war on their own.
Often we see strength as power unleashed. But it is just the opposite. Strength is power controlled. Even James says the tongue cannot be tamed by any man. Oswald Chambers says, "The tongue and brain are under our control, not God's." But, "to bridle the tongue does not mean to hold your tongue; that might mean "If I speak, I would say something!" It means to have the tongue under the control of a disciplined heart; that tongue need ever apologize." Chambers also said, "...the great test of a man's character is his tongue." The core strength of a man's soul is his character, his integrity. Without character all other parts of the man's strength is merely undisciplined, untrained muscles.
According to Jesus, what we say illustrates the inner thinking of our hearts. And Chambers says, "to 'confess' Christ means to say, not only with the tongue, but with every bit of our life, that Jesus has come into our flesh." And we all know the wisest man--other than Jesus--who wrote, "there is a time to speak and a time to keep silence." I think the wise man is the man who knows which to do when. selahV [copyrighted, SelahV Today, 2007]
