Kindness

Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness..”

Jesus was the most compassionate and kind person to walk the face of the earth. He said to His disciples that if they were to even give a drink to a child in need, it would be as if they were doing it unto Him. Jesus was a man full of kindness. Jesus was a giver. If we are to imitate Jesus, we are going to walk in kindness toward one another. Many times we can see kindness in words, such as “Oh, he just told me how nice I looked” – from that, we consider them to be a kind person…But kindness should be expressed little in words compared to our acts of kindness. This does not mean that we are not kind with our words, but that our actions back up our words, not to mention that acts of kindness far outweigh in value words of kindness. Ephesians 4:32 says “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you”.
In 1 Corinthians 13, commonly referred to as the Love chapter, kindness is mentioned as being a part of love. It says “Love is patient, love is kind…” So, in order to be walking in the fullness of Love, which is actually the first fruit of the Spirit that we went over (but just began to touch), we must be walking in kindness. And this is food for thought coming up right here – Saying something kind to somebody’s face and turning around and talking badly about the same person is wrong and the very word’s said to the person’s face did not come from a kind heart, therefore kindness is not at work. Kindness is more than words. True kindness must blossom from the inside, the heart must be right. If my heart is filled with hate and I talk kindly to someone but truly hate that person and they don’t know it, it is NOT kindness. This is not believed today. The practice today is to be nice to somebody when they’re present, but when they’re not, they are center of hurtful words, we chop them up and leave them on the ground even though they aren’t there. Then we want to see them and smile and say “Oh you look so nice today, you are truly an angel”, the only problem is…The heart’s not there. And truly, the other person may not know it, but the one who has the wrong heart does and must take into account their attitude of heart and change it. Kindness is practiced whether there are people around or not.
I hope you see how important kindness is and how strongly linked it is to love. The two walk hand in hand! Let’s make an effort to walk in kindness and love towards one another, when people are not present and when they are. When kindness springs forth from the heart, it will be so easy to talk kindly to one another and the joy of it is this – it will be truth!

Quit hurrying!

Patience

Galatians 5:23 – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience…”

If there was ever a time of being in a hurry, it’s NOW. No pun intended…But really, we see a lack of patience all over the place. We call some restaurants “Fast Food Restaurants” because we are in a hurry to get to a destination, and the world is coming to an end if it takes 6 minutes in the drive through rather than 5, I mean let’s be serious, don’t these people know that what I have to do and where I’m going is VERY IMPORTANT? Then we get back on the road and we’re stuck behind two slugs having a race on the two-lane street and they are neck and neck, outrageous! The gall of some people going the speed limit on the road, inconceivable! This is just a few examples.
But we see this “hurry” attitude all over the place, and the lack of patience we see is 9 times out of 10 (not statistically proven) connected with somebody else, i.e. the examples I just gave – People at the restaurant not working fast enough, people on the road driving too slow. We get impatient with others and pretty soon we are angry at the other one, bitter, and we start saying things we shouldn’t have said, and where did it come from? In this case, a lack of patience.
Well we know from reading this scripture that one of the fruits of the Spirit is patience, so this obviously needs to be developing in our lives, and we can start right in the car, that is if we have trouble dealing with other people on the road. I can’t pinpoint every area where there is a lack of patience, but these two that I described are areas I dealt with before. When patience is not being developed, stress is either right at the door step or about to walk in. Some terrible things happen when we take on an attitude of “hurry, hurry” or “I can’t take this anymore!”. We may end up doing something drastic that could hurt others and yourself.
How do we develop patience? It’s simple – practice. Making choices that sometimes we don’t feel like making but we know are right. The car example one last time – Someone is going 40 in a 45 and it’s a one lane road, double yellow line, night-time, and you are stuck behind this person. You think “Ok, I’ve had enough, I’m passing this guy”, but what you don’t realize is there is a car coming the other direction and you didn’t see him because his headlights were off, but…It’s too late. You acted in a hurry, there was no patience, and the accident could cost the other person and you your lives. 
This is a serious example, but if patience is not practiced with the little things, it could lead to something like this. But we have the choice, it is a choice, to be patient with others and with things.
There is more on patience, but this is enough for this time. So remember, don’t be in a hurry – be patient!

Beyond Happiness

Galatians 5:22 – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy...”

 The word joy is commonly compared to happiness, but let me tell you that joy is much much more than happiness.  In fact, happiness is temporary and subject to change.  For example, you may be having the best day of your LIFE and someone comes up to you and says, “Hey, you look really stupid and bad today, I wonder, have you looked in the mirror at yourself?  You’re a big failure.  Or how about your ’91 Dodge shadow that you’re driving out there that sounds like a herd of squealing pigs when you’re driving?  That must be so embarrassing, especially if you’re anywhere in town, they can hear your hunk of junk miles away.  Yea, you’re an idiot”.  Now, I don’t know about you, but happiness would probably grow wings and fly right out the window for me if someone said that to me and meant it, but here’s where the difference between joy and happiness comes in.  What’s very important about joy is that it is a choice.  Now what that person said has come to rob you of your joy.  One of the normal reactions would be to take your fist and pop them in the face, but the reaction should be one like this – “I don’t care what you say, I won’t accept that to myself.  You are entitled to your opinion, but I won’t get hurt by it”.  Here’s the thing…You will never make every person happy, you will never look good to every person, and you must accept that!  Knowing that will take the pressure off of you.  The big thing is to make the choice to ignore those words that have come to you.  Yes, you have heard them, and once you have heard them you are faced with two choices – You can either take those words to yourself and get offended, or you can shun those words and keep a good attitude.  It is definitely not an easy choice, but it has benefits;  You won’t lose your joy!  And it’s hard to bring someone down when their joy can’t be taken away.  There’s a positive aura about them, you’ll notice.  Why?  Joy!  That person can’t be brought down!  Now happiness is found in joy, joyful people are happy people.  But if something comes against that person and they aren’t giggly and bent over laughing all the time doesn’t mean they aren’t a joyful person.  Something else on joy I’ll end up with.

Nehemiah 8:10 says that the joy of the Lord is your strength, or you can say it this way - When you take joy in the Lord, it becomes your strength.  When you make the choice to remain joyful in trials and tribulations and throughout your normal daily routine, strength of the Lord will be right there.  It’s all about choice.

So remember this:  Joy is a choice, it is not just simply happiness.  You are strengthened by the Lord because you made the decision to remain joyful.

Don’t just stay happy – Stay joyful!

Peaceful Times

Galatians 5:23 – “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace…”

Peace is one of the most sought for things in the world.  You’ve heard the cliché line on the pageants, “World peace”.  Our nation looks to make peace with other nations.  We fight for peace.  We look to be at peace with others.  We hate tension between our friends when there is an argument or something nasty was said – well what’s lacking here?  Peace.  In John 15:27, Jesus said “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you.”  It’s clear that Jesus was a peaceful person.  Now I’m not saying Jesus was out in a field of lilies all the time in a cross legged position meditating, He wasn’t.  He was always on the move, He was about the Father’s business.  So what about us?  What about our hectic schedules?  What about schoolwork that seems to be so overbearing?  What about our job that is so stressful?  What about bills and not having too much money left over or any at all?  What about these things, and how in the world can we find peace?  How can there be peace in a world that is full of stress, chaos, and fear?  The answer is found in Matthew.

In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus says “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  Jesus told us to come to Him, for in Him is true peace.  It’s not just temporary peace for your soul but a lifestyle of peace.  It’s the ability to come to Him when life is really hard on you, when times are stressful.  If there are times of trouble and times of stress, they are right now, and Jesus is inviting you to come to Him so He can give you His peace.  And the best part about it is this – you don’t have to leave His peace.  When things start to look up and alright, we may start to drift, to back away, slip back into the old way of doing things, leaving His peace behind;  we had our temporary fix, we are okay for now, I’ll come back when I need some more…But we don’t ever have to leave.  Jesus said to “Abide in Me”, He wants you to abide in Him, in His peace at all times.  Now things will still come, stressful times will come, troubled times will come, but when we are with Him, His peace is there and will carry you through just as long as you abide in Him – It’s our choice.  Run to Him, let Him wrap you in His arms, for in Him there is peace that passes comprehension.