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In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ “Acts 20:35
A woman suffering from hemorrhaging for over a decade touches His robe and is healed immediately. A man sits alone beside a pool that represents his only hope for healing, for 38 years until He shows up and heals him. A man born blind is given the opportunity to see the faces of those who have cared for him for his entire life when mud is put on his eyes and his eyes are opened.
The life of Jesus Christ was life full of doing acts of kindness in the lives of people around Him. Every act of kindness that we have recorded in the Bible involves Jesus meeting not only the spiritual needs of the people but also their physical and emotional needs. His acts of kindness reached beyond the person healed to friends and family members who rejoiced along side their now-healthy loved one.
Today we call acts of kindness ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ but there should be no ‘randomness’ in our acts of kindness for the Christ-follower. The word ‘random’ is defined by Webster as ‘a haphazard course without definite aim, rule, direction or method. But if we are to answer the question ‘What Would Jesus Do’ we need to follow the example he set forth.
Jesus’ “Acts of Kindness’ were anything but ‘random.’ Jesus always reached out for the weak, the struggling and the poor, not the strong. Jesus always met the emotional and physical needs as well as the spiritual needs. Jesus went out of His way to meet with those who needed His touch and often at the expense of his own comfort. Jesus was more interested in relationship than recognition. As a result He would often tell those He healed to ‘Go, sin no more and don’t tell people what I’ve done.’ Finally, Jesus’ actions always pointed towards relationships, not religion.
Jesus wasn’t interested in what church people went to. He wasn’t interested in how they got into the condition they were in, what political views they held or any of the other things we label people by. Jesus’ goal in life was to make the lives of those He touched better after He touched them.
As Christ-followers we have the same mission. We aren’t random in our kindness. The way we treat people on a daily basis should be the way Jesus treated people. Make their lives better simply because they have been with us.
That’s not easy to do when we are cut-off in traffic by someone too busy texting to pay attention; when the only thing worse then the service in the restraint is the service; when our spouse/children/parents seem intent on making our lives miserable; when the choices we’ve made continue to haunt us.
Today, resolve to show ‘Deliberate Acts of Kindness’ to those around you. Be intentional in your love. Reach out to the weak. By God’s grace and with the power of His Holy Spirit, show the love and kindness of Christ in every situation. By giving kindness you will reap the reward of personal blessing.
PRAYER: Dear Jesus, I thank you for the examples you gave of kindness to people around you. I confess that my acts of kindness are random and not intentional. Empower me to show Deliberate Acts of Kindness to those around me, especially those I find offensive so that I can show Your love to others. In Your name I pray, Amen.
I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will guide him and restore comfort to him. Isaiah 57:18
The prophet Isaiah was called by God to minister to a people who never seemed to get the ‘living for God’ thing right. Their history with Him wasn’t stellar by any means. Even though God blessed them time and time again they refused to see Him as the source of their success. Any time something came along that looked better than God’s ways they followed it. They were stubborn, rebellious people who didn’t seem to care what God said.
Not only did they have a hard time following God’s ways, they blamed God when they didn’t get their own way. If God didn’t get them what they wanted they’d find a god that did. It may be money, new relationships, or stealing from other people. The bottom line was God’s people weren’t very godly after all. The people chose religion over relationship but that didn’t satisfy them so they found other things to soothe their pain.
Isaiah came before the people with a message straight from God. It was a simple message: “I know your name.” Things really haven’t changed much since Isaiah was prophet. We all still struggle with our spiritual walk. We try to live for God but are pulled in so many other directions that we lose sight of His way. People fail us, or abuse us, so we find others who will treat us well. We find comfort in drugs and/or alcohol but that is only a temporary fix to our pain. We try religion but religion is demanding and often doesn’t seem relevant to our pain. We get tired of trying and failing and trying and failing again. When we continue to fail like that it’s easy to just give up. We may decide God doesn’t exist or care. We may decide we are just too hopeless of a case and try to go it alone because there is no way He’ll accept us.
None of that is true. Isaiah 57:18 tells us that God knows who we are from the very beginning. He knows our name. He’s seen what we are like from the inside out. We humans tend to determine who we are and who others are by what we see on the outside. We associate a certain kind of behavior, looks and attitudes by what we see on the outside because we are limited by our humanity.
Our name gives people the framework for who we are. If I say I saw ‘Mary Jones’ today, and you know Mary, then in your mind you can relate all you know about Mary by that name. The same is true to a much larger degree with God. He knows who you are from the inside out. He doesn’t just know what you do, He knows the real reason you do it.
Not only does God know you better than anyone else, including yourself, He loves you. He wants to heal you. The Bible refers to our sin nature as a disease. It’s a disease we are born with and one we can’t heal ourselves. We seek all sorts of ‘medication’ to deal with it like relationships, chemicals, and religion, but nothing works. The only thing that will heal you is forgiveness by God through Jesus Christ.
If you are sick, you don’t say, “As soon as I get better I need to get to the doctor.” That’s a ridiculous idea. When you are sick you go to the one that can heal. Jesus not only heals you, He understands why you fail, comforts you in your pain and wants to help you learn to have a full, rich relationship with Him.
God knows your name. He knows who you are and exactly why you are the way you are. He’s real, powerful and loving. Through His Son Jesus, He can help soothe the pain you are in regardless of what you have done.
PRAYER: Dear Jesus, I’m so thankful that you know me. Other people think they know me, but even my best friends only know what they see on the inside. I praise you for knowing me from the inside out and understanding my pain. Forgive me of the mistakes I’ve made. Heal my wounds that run deep. Comfort me with your loving forgiveness. In Your Name I pray, Amen.
But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. Job 23:10
“I believe in the sun even when it is not shining, I believe in love even when I am alone and I believe in God even when He is silent” Inscription found scratched into a wall in Germany by someone hiding from the Nazi concentration camps.
It’s easy to have faith in God when you have a surplus in your checkbook. Having faith is easy when your spouse is sensitive to all your needs; your kids are well respected, academically achieving, mature young men and women; the doctor’s report comes back favorably and the weather forecast is perfect for that outdoor picnic.
If we are really honest with ourselves, all too often the level of our faith is directly proportional to the comfort level of our lives. When things go well, God is good. When things go bad then something or someone must be wrong. We can easily start blaming others, ourselves, or even God for all the bad that happens. Sometimes we even stop believing that God exists or, if he does, is unconcerned or unable to deal with our situation.
None of us have endured the pain and agony that Job experienced. Children in his day were a sign of wealth and godliness and all ten of his kids were killed in a horrible storm. He was the richest and most generous man in the region, yet had all his wealth taken from him. His body was full of painful, itching, oozing boils for which the only medicine was to sit in a pile of ashes and scrap himself with a piece of broken pottery. His community couldn’t bear to look at him so he was ignored, his friends became his relentless critics, imploring him to turn from sin and his wife, the last person he had on earth, turned her back on him. Job was a completely broken, lonely, pain-racked man.
In the midst all this pain Job testifies to his faith in God. It’s as though he says, in a voice that almost sounds like he’s trying to convince himself, “I know that He’s there. I can’t see Him. But I know He sees me. I can’t understand what I’ve done to end up this way. I followed and obeyed Him. I’ve been a good husband and father. I’ve been generous to the poor. It doesn’t matter what people think of me. This one thing I know. When all this pain is over. When the time of His testing is done. I’ll come out of this shining like gold.
The picture of gold is a picture of refining; a picture of removing all the impurities, all the faults, all the issues that may have been in Job’s character by the cleansing heat of fire. Fire is painful and ruthless in it’s purifying of gold just as trials are ruthless in purifying our character. Enduring faith is seen in the hard times of life, when everything seems to be going downhill.
Wherever you are in life, ask God to help you grow to have enduring faith. Perhaps you’ve looked back on your life and seen many times when your decisions and lifestyle have brought on the consequences you now face. Nothing you have done or anyone else has done can keep you from enjoying the peace and comfort only God can give through His Son Jesus.
Praise Him today for the fact that someday your earthly trials will be over. Someday He will show Himself to you in ways you never thought possible. You may not be able to see Him. His ways may seem to far off for you and your pain may be too great right now. But He does love you and knows where you are and wants to walk with you through the adversity that lay ahead.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father. Although I’m not in nearly as bad of shape as Job, my pain is still very real. I’ve tried to find you, but I can’t. I’ve tried to fill this void in my life with all sorts of things, even things like religion, but that hasn’t worked. I thank you that you see me where I am and love me the way I am. Help me to have enduring faith as I walk this journey called life. Show me Jesus so I can follow Him. Thank you for forgiving me, in Jesus name, Amen.
After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before. Job 42:10
The story of Job is rich with lessons for each of us as we travel this journey called life. Here’s a man who ‘did everything right’ yet lost everything he had for no apparent reason to him. He’d lost his children, all of his wealth and the intimacy of a relationship with his wife. As he sat in emotional and physical agony his so-called friends show up and give him all sorts of answers as to why things happened the way they did.
All of their wisdom really could be boiled down to this: “Job, you messed up. You are a miserable sinner that God is punishing for your pride and arrogance. Why not just confess your sin. Everyone knows that tragedy only come because of our sin.”
They were wrong of course. We have the advantage of reading the entire script for the drama and seeing all that was going on backstage. Job was an innocent man. His trials were really the result of satanic attack. God himself was testified to His innocence and holiness backstage of the drama where only heavenly beings could hear.
Job is rich with lessons for our journey of life. God is in ultimate control of all that goes on in our lives. He allows things to happen. Painful things. Tragic things. Things that bring agony for a time. While He doesn’t explain Himself, we can know from the story of Job that although the agony is horrific, it isn’t always because of our sin and it is temporary. Even if it is sickness it is temporary because as Christ-followers were aren’t home yet. Our home is a place absent of sickness, pain, tears and death.
There’s another lesson we can learn from Job. It’s a lesson about prayer. After all his friends offered up their meaningless wisdom, God appeared to the three of them. Job was vindicated and his friends chastised.
After God was seen for who He was, the Bible tells us that Job prayed for his friends. There is no indication that he was healed of his pain or restored until he prayed for them. Imagine the scene. Job is still sitting in a pile of ashes. The piece of pottery he used to scrap his boils was laying nearby. All those involved were awestruck by the very presence of God. Then, in the midst of Job’s pain he prayed for his friends!
When we are in pain and agony we may hold that pain in because we wrongfully see pain as a sign of weakness. We may ask our friends to pray for us. But Job prayed for his friends even though he, himself had yet to be healed.
As we travel this journey called life there are many setbacks and hurdles along the way. Things that will hurt us to the point where we question if we can continue on. You could be suffering from the consequences of your own sin or poor decisions. You could be bearing the physical and/or emotional bruises of abuse. There could be no known reason for why you are in the place you are.
In the midst of your pain, don’t forget the pain of others. Job’s friends were wrong. They were judgmental, critical and compassionless. We all run across those people during our lives. People we’ve trusted laughed with and loved. Yet when times grew bad they turned on us. Follow the example of Job and pray for others in the midst of your pain.
Sometimes, in order to do this you will need to forgive others for their insensitivity. Sometimes you will need to overlook the fact that they are just plain wrong. Only you and your God know your heart. Never lose sight of the fact that while they can’t see your heart, you can’t see their heart and/or motives either.
After Job prayed, God blessed him. This wasn’t a small blessing. Job had all his wealth and more restored to him. I believe that one of the reasons he was restored so completely is because of his humble willingness to pray for those who mistreated him. This can only be done through the strength of God. Don’t let the pain of your own life cause you to overlook the pain of others.
PRAYER: Father God, I don’t understand why I have to endure some of this pain that you have placed along my path. I am so tired of so-called experts who offer all sorts of advice while overlooking my own pain or understanding my agony. Help me to forgive them and pray for them. Give me words of encouragement I can offer them even though they can’t return the favor. Thank you for being in complete control of all I do and am. Help me to trust you in the darkness. Amen.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 