Take My Hand Inspirations
Fruit of the Spirit Series
GOD’S HEARTBEAT: The Fifth
Fruit -- KINDNESS
And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another, even as God in Christ forgave you (Ephesians 4:32).
KINDNESS is defined in most
dictionaries as generous, helpful and caring about other
people’s feelings.
Feelings are our emotional buttons that are pressed like keys on a piano
emanating various melodies ranging from murderous anger to hilarious laughter. Which key you press yourself or allow others to
press in you is dependent on how you develop your Fruit of Kindness.
Kindness
is the heartbeat, the consistent rhythm, of God. When Adam and Eve sinned against Him, He did
not destroy His beloved creation—mankind.
Instead, He moved them out of the holy place into a “pretty” place where
they’d have to toil for survival. That
toiling—farming and child bearing—were to be reminders to generations today,
that there are consequences to sin, even unto death (Romans 6:23). Yet, you and I are still alive.
You
and I can hug humanity through Diana Ross’ lyrics: “reach out and touch somebody’s
hand, make this world a better place, if we can” . . . . through our acts of KINDNESS. Applied practically, kindness is that
quality in you that takes time to
listen to how others feel, care
about what problems or challenges, or joys and expectancies they are
experiencing; and to give whatever help you can, be it comfort, or encouraging
words, or financial assistance, or forgiveness.
And to give it generously (without asking or
demanding or expecting anything in return).
The
Fruit of Kindness can flourish and grow lavishly in your life if your good soil
is nourished with gratefulness. It was his nature of gratitude that made one
of the ten lepers turn around, run to Jesus and thank him with all sincerity
for his healing from leprosy. It was
from her nature of gratitude that she washed His feet with her tears and expensive
oil and dried them with her hair as a sign of thanksgiving for being forgiven
her terrible sins.
Gratitude,
being thankful for the “small” and for the “big” things God does for you, is what accelerates
the growth of the Fruit of Kindness and allows you to fill the lives of others
with your melodies of caring, encouraging, giving hope, opening a door, feeding
the poor, caring for the sick, and preaching to lost souls for their
salvation. Tenderheartedness is God’s
heart. If the Holy Spirit lives in you,
then you, too, possess the heart of God.
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put
away from you, with all malice (Ephesians
4:31). Not what goes into
the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a
man. But those things which proceed out
of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,
murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, blasphemies (Matthew
15:11, 18-19).
For
some of us, our hearts are so cold and bitter, we have no more compassion or
any feeling to be kind to others, not even to our wife (or husband) or
children. Every word that comes out of
your mouth is so full of hostility, don’t you see your destroying the lives of
others around you? What happened to you that
makes you spit revenge on the people who want to love you?
Perhaps
someone else destroyed the natural tendencies in you for showing and giving
kindness? If your parents hurt you, or
your heart was broken by someone you loved dearly, or if someone just publicly disregarded, shamed, demoted or insulted you, does that justify your
reasons for bathing others in your pool of poison?
Beloved
Brother, Sweet Sister, maybe the natural has been damaged in ways unbearable to
your emotions, but let the Supernatural, let the Love of Jesus, heal you right
now. Bearing the first four fruits—love
(read blog #16), joy (read blog #17),
peace (read blog #18), and patience (read blog #19)—prepares you to
produce the Fruit of Kindness. But, it is a choice to want to be healed and to
want to enjoy these fruits.
Jesus
answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? And He said to him, “Arise,
go your way. Your faith has made you
well.” (Read Luke 17:11-19).
Then
He turned to the woman and said to Simon, Do you see this
woman? I entered your house, you gave me
no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them
with the hair of her head. You gave me
no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came
in. You did not anoint My head with oil,
but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which were
many, are forgiven, for she loved much.
But to whom little is forgiven, the same love little. (Read
Luke 7:36-50).
This
woman was overloaded with all kinds of sin.
You and I may be in that same situation in our embittered hearts. But when she opened her heart to demonstrate
kindness with her tears, her hair, her financial fragrance, she was telling us
all how grateful she was. Then He said
to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
The
other nine lepers were healed of leprosy, but for the tenth one, Jesus ensured
that every aspect of his life would be blessed and prosperous which would allow
him to do more acts of kindness to others.
Jesus sat in the house of a rich man, but that woman who bathed Him in
tears and oil gained complete salvation, total forgiveness for every evil act
she ever committed; and to top that, she lived out the rest of her days in
peace allowing her to do more acts of kindness to others.
Gratitude
gets the attention of Christ. An
outpouring of thanksgiving opens doors to perfect peace, blessings and
supernatural provision. All this comes
from every act of kindness which beats from a tender heart and a forgiving
nature.
What
do you need right now? Tell God, show
God what you are thankful for. Be
kind—do something to another person today that will press his or her emotional
buttons that play a song full of laughter.
Then both of you enjoy the melodies of praise! You can do it. Force that fifth Fruit of Kindness on
somebody else today. And thank God for
the help and care and generosity He’s going to reward you with.
© 2018 by Take My Hand Inspirations, a
division of PepParadise Society Ltd Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—without the prior
written permission of the publisher. The
only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Unless otherwise stated, all scripture
quotations are from The New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas
Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All
rights reserved.
© 1969 (written by) Nickolas Ashford
and Valerie Simpson; songwriters; © 1970 (recorded by) Diana Ross. Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand.
Most of the paintings selected is
retrieved from “Black Art” search engine.
Take My Hand Inspirations
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