“I love kindness,” I said aloud after hanging up the phone. I had been speaking with someone at a government office with whom I had spoken before. Helpful. Kind. Such a blessing especially in this day and age. I would suppose most of us appreciate kindness. And I would imagine many of us are thankful for kindness when we receive it. And probably lots of us don’t like it when we don’t receive kindness. But I wonder this.
Are we more focused on whether or not we receive kindness than we are dedicated to being kind to others?
How quickly and easily I have gotten upset over the years when people have been unkind to me. But how terribly far short I have fallen in showing kindness toward others.
The Lord shows us in the Bible His greatest commands are to love Him with all our hearts and to love others as ourselves, His Holy Spirit lives inside His followers whereby we are to bear the fruit of His Spirit which includes kindness, we are to “put on” kindness, and love is to be kind. There is no way around it. God’s followers are to be people of love and kindness.
Are we kind to others? Do we repent before God when we are not? Do we apologize to people when we are unkind? Let’s seek the Lord about this. Let’s repent if we need to. Let’s strive to be kind. Through the love of God, by the love, grace, mercy, strength, and power of the Holy Spirit, through Jesus, let us be kind!
Our kindness should not be contingent on whether or not others are kind. We should humble ourselves before the Lord and in obedience to Him BE KIND! Each and every day, with the love of Jesus, for the glory of God, let us BE KIND!
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40
“Charity [love in some Bible versions]suffereth long, and is kind;…” 1 Corinthians 13:4 KJV
“Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels [also “tender mercies” per Strong’s concordance]of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;” Colossians 3:12 KJV
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness [kindness in some Bible versions], goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23 KJV