So I was at a Bible study on Sunday which was focused on the book of John and how he discribes or speaks of Jesus. Christi s described as love and something that stood out from the whole thing, was 1 Corithinians 13: 4-7. I've known this scripture since I was young, but I think I haven't paid it the right amount of attention.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Each phrase is potentially a different blog posts filled with reflection. I think that at the Bible study the Holy Spirit asked me "what do your kindness levels look like?" now that may have been phrased differently at the time but I think "levels" is a fair enough word to use. I've taken stock of my kindness levels and boy o boy is it shocking. Others may tell me how kind I am, that's great and I need encouragement, but I think of a particular time when I recently failed to show kindness to someone who needed it for many reasons and I failed to show them love. Eish, she'll may not even remember the incident and probably didn't expect kindness so there's no lose on her part, but isn't that the beauty of kindness, when it comes unexpected and when you need it most? I think of the time when Jesus calls Zacheus from the tree, in the crowd and says "dude, i'm going to your house today" (Well, I don't think Christ spoke like that back then, so do read Luke 19:1-10 for the actual story). That was very kind of Jesus. Zaccheaus as you may know was a tax collector, and was not a very nice person, he was actually hated by many people. So, even though Jesus would get flak from people for choosing to be his guest, He didn't consider their approval, He chose what remains at the end of it all, love (1 Corinithians 13: 13) .What I like about this story is that Jesus didn't have to preach to Zaccheaus, kindess melted his heart, convictede him of sin and brought him to repentance. This made him a better person in my books. Wow, love has that effect. Kind love.
Anyway, this is not a bash session on myself, I have repented and have from today decided to walk in kindness. I think that this kindess walk is one that needs me to live in the revelation of God's eternal kindness every waking day of my life, man, even waking up is evidence of God's kindess and it says so in Psalms 3:5. God's eternal kindness was Him sending His son to die on the cross for my sins. I don't deserve forgiveness or even eternal life, but He gave His son freely so I can have these and all the promises that come with being His child. I'm not a spohisticated writer so I can't write fancy words on what this all means, I just know that this is my new the standard of kindness. I get it now when I read 1 John 3: 16 and it says, "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us..." I just know that this was very kind of God, a rather extravagant form of kindness and O my, I want a heart like His!
May our kindness levels increase!
Love
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