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How can we be the living expression of God’s kindness today?

This week’s study is about “bubbling over with kindness”.  It is an invitation to celebrate the kindness of God by reflecting God’s kindness in our everyday relationships.  Kindness begins with caring and requires that we look beyond ourselves and recognize the needs of others.  It means not being so busy and overloaded that we charge forward without paying any attention to those in our path.  How can we be kind?  It may be as simple as taking time to be with family and friends.  It may be by helping out when a team member at work or school is experiencing difficulty.  It may be as simple as not being impatient and rude if the person ahead of us in the grocery line is having a hard time getting organized at the checkout counter or someone is driving slowly in the fast lane.  We might take the time to call, write or visit someone who would love to hear from us.  Kindness is contagious.   When you experience kindness, pass it along and think about the ways you experience and share God’s love and kindness each day.

I had a “gentle” yoga class today and totally enjoyed the time that I was given to meditate as well as exercise.  I continually thought (when not struggling to balance):  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind,  and with all your  soul.  This simple passage, thought of throughout a 90-minute class, left me mentally refreshed and strengthened to take on the day.

1 Chronicles 16:11 tells us that we should seek God and His strength by continually seeking His presence.  When we seek the Lord and worship Him, we find strength to deal with the problems we are bound to encounter in this life.  Continually seeking His presence– this means not half-heartedly seeking God – occasionally saying a prayer to ask for something we desire —  but fully and continually finding ways to know God, praise God and express gratitude to  Him for all we have. Taking time to be with God to discern the plan He might have for our lives — ways to serve others and grow His kingdom.   When we lose our focus on God, we deny ourselves the very strength that God provides to deal with our needs in life.   To seek the Lord we need to work to prepare our hearts, minds and souls to focus on God and gain the strength only He can provide.

“Even as the angry vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him….Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness….And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives along with the command, the love itself.”
― Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place

All of us experience times when we struggle and have doubts…when we feel weak and insecure.   Not every day is a day of amazing strength, a day focused on God, or a day filled with gratitude.  Sometimes we just feel really challenged to solve the problems we face or feel ill-equipped to continue with something we thought we felt called to do.  We are tired, we are weary, and we are simply worn out.  In these valleys, we need to be able to shift our focus beyond our immediate obstacles and look toward Christ.   When things are going great, we can forget just how much we need Him.  These troubling times can be an opportunity to stretch our faith and begin to experience the truth that through Christ, all things are possible.

We often look for strength from God to help guide us through life’s problems. Isaiah 40:31 tells us that to gain strength we must “wait on the Lord”.  Just how do we gain the patience to wait? We find strength in God through worship. We thank Him.  We honor Him.  We spend time with Him in prayer and thanksgiving. We spend time studying His Word to better understand His character. We humble ourselves and recognize our need for Him.  Through worship we gain the strength we need to “fly high on wings like eagles” for we recognize that by ourselves we are weak, but with God, all things are possible.

As Christians we are called to be outwardly focused – on God and on our neighbors.  Robert Schnase, in his writings on developing successful, outward-focused church congregations, calls us to put into effect five fruitful practices:  Radical Hospitality, Passionate Worship, Intentional Faith Development, Risk-taking mission and service, and Extravagant Generosity.  The adjectives are important!   Think about how enthusiastically putting these practices in place within our own lives and among a community of believers, could make a difference in our life …  and in our world.

I found this writing from Charles Stanley very relevant to this week’s study on service:

“Another truth Paul learned is that having experienced the Lord’s support in our suffering, we are then able to “comfort those who are in any affliction”.  Although He employs various means to deliver encouragement, people are a favorite instrument.  After walking through challenges, we are qualified to share God’s love by cheering on the discouraged, lifting up the burdened, and reaching out to the hurting.”

How can we use the challenges we have faced in our life to help cheer on, lift up and reach out to others in need?