Gentle and Lowly

For anyone struggling with assurance, sin, or grief, this is a liberating resource. This is a must read for Christians!! Dane is a master at writing in making complex ideas simple as well as provoking soul filling questions. This book has changed the way I have related with Christ. While the book engages the soul of the Christian, it is deeply theological using many of the writings from the reformers, puritans, and others in church history! Throughout this book there were times where I felt this is too good to be true yet, Dane backs everything with scripture as well as church history. This is a book I have read twice and always recommend friends and those around me to read!

Wow, what an amazing book dedicated to the heart of Jesus. I read this throughout the month of June and each time I picked it up, I grew in faith in the Lord. I was encouraged, reminded, comforted and sometimes convicted. Make sure you check out the YouTube Live Shows on Krista's Channel, BooksAndJams for more in depth discussions! I am so thankful to have joined some of the live show discussions with her and other lovely ladies this month. My channel name is BookLoverAmanda. This book dives deep into the heart of Christ and how he views us. He is gentle and lowly in heart. This book beautifully explains this in each chapter and provides some great historical background from the Puritans. What I was reminded of: • We often minimize our sin, we don’t have a good understanding of it because we have a sinful nature. God shows us His ultimate grace and Christ’s heart is drawn to us. Romans 5:20 “Where sin increased, Grace abounded all the more.” • Christ intercedes for us and he will never cast out. • He is an advocate for us. I resonated with this so much because my son has Autism and I have been struggling this past year and found myself sitting in my feelings many days. I can remember specifically one week where I had been so overwhelmed and not praying as I should. I cried out to the Lord one night, praying for my son to have good days at school and to help him grow in his speech and skills. The very next day, he had the best day he had in weeks and the chapter on Jesus being our advocate reminded me that just like I am advocating for my son in his struggles, with therapy and preschool, Jesus is advocating for me, my husband and my son all along the journey. • Jesus is our friend, he is near to us and we should draw near to him. • Jesus understands our feelings and has compassion for us. In our grief, he is grieved. He sees what we are going through and is not surprised by anything we are going through or feeling. • We don’t have to do anything (works) to earn his love. I love the comparison of the son trying to do everything to secure his place in the family when he doesn’t have to do anything special – the same for us in our relationship with Jesus. It’s settled and irreversible. • While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. He loves me in my mess – my crazy, busy, working mom life mess. I can’t be everything for everybody and that’s ok. This chapter reminded me that throughout my mess – he is always sustaining me and loving me and listening. Overall, this is a perfect book to help us understand Jesus and His heart for us.

There are few books that I would say have serious "changed my life." Obviously, the Bible, God's written word, is the absolute authority (Sola Scriptura) and has transformed my life and continues to shape me day by day, but then there are really good books which it's authors have sought to rightly explain and apply the Bible to our lives. For me, those really good books have been ones that have given me major paradigm shifts in my life as a Christian. Titles like Don't Waste Your Life and Desiring God by John Piper, Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem, and the Doctrine of the Word of God by John Frame have been foundational to my understanding and walk with God and are always near me in my bookshelf to pick up. However, it has been a long time since I felt a significant shift and renewal in my heart from a book like I did with these books. What's so fascinating is how God has used this small book to radically rock my heart to tears with the simple yet profound wonder of the heart of my Lord and Savior, Jesus, the Son of God! Honestly, learning how Christ's heart is towards me has been so radically life-changing for me because it has clarified and helped me live out what I believed and known to be true but yet somehow not have fully lived out or experienced. Reading that the Chrisitan life is all about coming to Jesus no matter how you feel because you know how Jesus feels toward you has transformed how I see my daily life. As I fight sin, I fight sin by coming to Jesus who says true rest is found in him and he will always give it. When I fail in that fight and sin, I don't have to feel shame and condemnation because he bore it all and his love intensifies even more for me. There are so many quotes to write here, but my goal in this review is to just say this: Please buy this book, read it, recommend it to others, and be refreshed by the Gospel of Jesus because you know more his heart in all of his redemptive work. To know that you are united with Christ always means that you are eternally invincible. Really? I can come to Jesus with all my filth and failure? "If you knew his heart, you would." - Thomas Goodwin

Good book. Positive read. Easy to read and uplifting.

Helping me learn more about Jesus AND myself. I love to live like Jesus. WWJD!

Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund My wife and I read this like a devotional book, we read a chapter (8 pages on average) each night after which we'd discuss and pray. I recommend that approach. It served as a daily teaching or reminder that the Bible teaches that "the bent of God's heart is mercy. His glory is his goodness" (p. 147). The only things God is described as being "rich" in are mercy and kindness (Ephesians 2). "The only two words Jesus will use to describe his own heart are gentle and lowly (Matt. 11:29). And the first two words God uses to describe who he is are merciful and gracious (Exodus 34:6-7)" (ibid). This book combats our ingrained and conscious or subconscious belief that our obedience strengthens the love of God-- when that is contrary to the Gospel of grace. Ortlund draws heavily on Thomas Goodwin and other Puritan or later Reformed writers on the topic of the depths of God's mercy. While the Bible and those same Puritans rightly wrote at length describing God's perfect justice and the measure of his wrath, Ortlund painstakingly illustrates the marvelous Gospel truth that there is rest and perfect forgiveness and no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. In the Bible, His anger requires provocation, but "not once are we told that God is 'provoked to love' or 'provoked to mercy,' as that is his natural bent toward his covenant children. God is not like us, who love conditionally and with limits. "The message of this book is that we tend to project our natural expectations about who God is onto him instead of fighting to let the Bible surprise us into what God himself says...The natural flow of the fallen human heart is toward reciprocity, tit-for-tat payback... intractably law-ish." Isaiah reminds us that his thoughts are not our thoughts, his ways are higher, and the context of that passage is about God's blessings and covenant with a wayward Israel that deserved punishment. "God's thoughts are so much higher that not only does he abundantly pardon the penitent; he has determined to bring his people into a future so glorious that we can hardly bring ourselves to dare for it," (pg. 154-161, great quote from John Calvin included). "That God is rich in mercy means that your regions of deepest shame and regret are not hotels through which divine mercy passes but homes in which divine mercy abides" (p. 179). That Jesus is friend to sinners is only contemptible to those who feel themselves not to be in that category" (p. 114). Read the book and enjoy the rest that it offers. 4.5 stars.

While I believe that Ortlund’s love for God and desire to convey His love to us is abounding here, I felt like the text was highly unapproachable for the layperson. The structure is wordy and difficult in flow, albeit poetic. I don’t feel this is a book for the common person with average reading skills and a general idea of who God is and what He feels for us. It felt highly academic and brainy for a read to feel the gentleness and lowliness of Christ. This is better suited as a deep theological study with emphasis on puritan thoughts and writing.

I’m one of those people who begin to read the introduction of a book and pretty quickly become bored with it and just jump on to chapter one. But this book? The very first sentence of his introduction caught my eye and I couldn’t stop until I’d reached the end. It was so captivating and seemed to speak just for me. His vocabulary was gentle, not ‘show-offy’ and gave a preview of a book that just might know how I’m really feeling. I’m about to get in my cozy spot with a soft throw, and find out how God really feels about me as I dive into chapter one.

The book is absolutely beautiful, in content and physically.

I really enjoyed this book and it quickly becomes one of my favourite books to read on the love of God and his affections towards us, his children! Would highly recommend it if you want to press deeper into God's thoughts towards you

A beautifully written book by David Gibson. Inspired, educational, challenging, motivating, encouraging! Amusing anecotes in there too. Can recommend this with confidence.

The book puts you in a right place as it looks into the heart issues

Good study book. Can’t say much else since I have not gone through it all.