God Speaking

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control”

(Galatians 5: 22)

The word, kindness, is tucked away in the list of the fruits of the Spirit and is often over looked for its importance and deeper meaning. “acts of kindness” has become a common phrase in today’s society and of course it is a positive thought to instil into our everyday activities. We have all experienced and appreciated the small gestures of a smile here, an opening of a door, a helping hand with dropped parcels. But when we look into Scripture and check a concordance, it is surprising the number of references to the word we find and the more surprising fact is that they refer to God’s kindness, so when we express kindness to another it is not to express us, but to show others the kindness of God. It is certainly not limited to that sweet smile or helping hand although that is still important.

Isaiah, the prophet is well aware that, the true essence of kindness comes from God himself and as he realises that he praises him for letting us all experience that kindness;

“I will tell of the kindness of the Lord, the deeds for which he is to be praised, according to all the Lord has done for us- the many good things he has done…” (Isaiah 63: 7)

Being aware that kindness is one of God’s characteristics, makes a whole lot of difference when we look closely at our own lives to see how we are portraying that in our every day relationships with people.

Firstly, we need to look at the kindness the Lord bestows on us and then acknowledge that as we talk to him in prayer and tell him we are actually realising where those unexpected bursts of kindness are coming from. David is quite sure he knows who is blessing him and knows this kindness doesn’t come and go, it is unfailing;

“He gives the king great victories, he bestows unfailing kindness to his anointed; to David and his descendants forever.” (Psalm 18: 50)

If we are willing, the Lord will choose us to express his kindness to others. One lady was sharing in our Bible study that just recently she accidently broke a dear little glass hummingbird that had belonged to her mother, she was broken hearted that lovely memory was now shattered. A few days later a member of her family without saying anything came to her door, handed her package and left. She opened the parcel and inside was a little hummingbird. She told us she knew it was actually from the Lord, her relative had been prompted to show God’s kindness to her.

Kindness can take on many different forms. Sometimes we may be asked to show kindness to those who annoy us. It may be someone in our office who talks incessantly, it may be an old relative who moves so slowly we want to give them a push to get them going, it may be someone struggling with a mental illness. If kindness is one of the fruits of the Spirit, we can allow it to pervade our actions, so it becomes automatically part of our being.