Fruit of the Spirit (6)

Fruit of Gods Spirit in our lives, what a wonderful concept. That fruit is not the little things we can do for Him or in His name, that fruit is the development of His character in us. more of Jesus, less of me...

It doesn't matter what our strong or weak points are, but it matters what His Holy Spirit wants to produce in us, and that is truly beautiful: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

Let's take a look at kindness, which in the Greek language is chrēstotēs. When researching the Bible we can find out that this is not our every-day kindness, the nodding to our neighbor or the friendly word to our co-worker. That sort of kindness is great and definitely to be praised, but the kindness that God wants to bring forth in our lives is kindness of a different order...

It is the kindness the apostle Paul writes about in 1 Corinthians 4:12-13, We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly... Kindness when being slandered? You gotta be kidding, right?! Well, it surely gives us a great exercise for this week: Do I allow the Holy Spirit to work through me or am I always going ahead of Him?

Supernatural kindness, that goes against all political correctness. That is being kind when we do not feel like it, that is kindness when we do not want to give it. Jesus explains it like this: But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked (Luke 6:35).

Ouch and ouch again... being kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Now, that is only possible with the help of the Holy Spirit!

Kindness

It doesn't matter how many times we read the words and lessons of Jesus, we can always learn something new.  This week I stumbled upon a comment from the Master that made me go... ouch! Is this really in the Bible?

I was reading through Luke chapter 6, a chapter full of wise and practical life lessons for Believers. Verse 35 says, But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High... There is enough meat in these words alone to do a blog series of 10 weeks! But this time, my eyes were drawn to the concluding words Jesus gave, words I haven't heard too many sermons on, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.

He (God) is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Is this the picture we have of God? Is this the picture people see when they see us? Often we have this image of a God who is cruel to the wicked and maybe even punishes Believers who have done wicked things. But Jesus, who knows the Father best, tells us something else. God is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. What a lesson to learn! Are we kind to the ungrateful and wicked?

God = love and 1 Corinthians 13:4 says that love is kind. It is Gods nature to be kind. What about us? The Bible teaches that kindness benefits people. Proverbs 11:17 says it simply like this, A kind man benefits himself, but a cruel man brings trouble on himself. I don't think we would call ourselves cruel, but the question today is: are we kind? Not necessarily to our kind of people, but to the ungrateful and wicked.

Kindness is fruit (Galatians 5:22) that the Holy Spirit wants to produce in our lives, so that we will become more and more like Him. How can we grow in this area? By being kind to the ungrateful and wicked people that cross our path every day! That is a challenge we must take up if we truly want to be called sons and daughters of God.

I am the Lord, who exercises kindness... [Jeremiah 9:24]

Kind words 4 fellow bloggers

Have you told someone today how much you enjoy their blog?

Kindness as a gift

Attitude check....

Last Friday I spoke at a ladies Christmas dinner at Church of the Living Christ in Ojai. I recalled my very first Christmas in the USA, back in 1989.

Oh, how I marveled at all the gifts, the ribbons and the bows, I had never seen such things in my life... well, only in the movies! Over the years I have learned that, somehow, it is not all glamour and glitter around Christmas. I saw people running around in desperate search for the perfect gift for uncle Larry (who never says thank you) and for sister-in-law Lorna (who returns her gifts first week of January). I noticed stress levels going up in the month of December and traffic (at least here in Southern California) turning into a hectic stream of cars rushing by. I even heard people say (believe this or not): I'm glad when it's over.

Laughs from the audience...

It doesn't matter how we look at this, there is one thing we all know for sure: If this is the way we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, it does NOT please God! Just this week I received an e-mail from friends saying: skip the gift, let's give to charity. I am sure that is one way to make Christmas more meaningful and joyful. But maybe your family wants to do the gift giving, so let me suggest the three things I talked about that evening:

1. God loves a cheerful giver. Not just when we give to Him, but also when we give to others. If you can't give cheerfully, don't do it! Grumpy shopping for your loved ones doesn't make sense. It is not the gift that counts, but the attitude behind it.
2. Stop searching for the 'perfect' gift (whoever made that up needs urgent prayer!) for the people on your list. It does NOT exist! You tried for years... right? The perfect gift does not exist in the material world, no gift can make someone really feel better, or happy, or ease their pain or make them appreciative. We are like the little child playing with that FisherPrice toy, trying to push the square block into a round hole, it is not going to work! We are trying to fulfill emotional and maybe even spiritual needs with material stuff, it won't fit! Buy something you love giving! It is not the gift that counts, but the attitude behind it.
3. Whatever gift you buy, add a personal note to it as an act of kindness. I don't care who you are and where you are in your life, every person on this planet needs a kind word! Write something like: I had fun shopping for you, Christmas would not be the same without you, thank you for your awesome cooking, thank you for opening up your house, I just love your humor... well whatever, anything that is kind and that comes from your heart and that shows love to the other person. I promise you it will change the atmosphere! It is not the gift that counts, but the attitude behind it!

Hope this helps!

PS: make sure to read Heather Sunseri's post on Christmas too!!