Week 5:
Cultivate Kindness Dear sisters and brothers at Grace, As I submit this week’s devotions, many of you are preparing to head into the church retreat. As you read this, the retreat is already a week behind you. I trust that this time of community togetherness drew you deeper into God’s grace and strengthened the bonds between you. This week’s fruit of the Spirit asks for others centred action. This week as you explore the Scriptures and pray about cultivating kindness in your lives, consider practising intentional acts of kindness. Kenneson begins this week’s chapter with the Random Acts of Kindness movement and presents that its core motivation was ultimately self-centred. Certainly our motivation must go beyond the ‘feel good factor’, finding its energy in a holy desire to extend kindness to individuals in a world in need. You may want to consider taking the initiative as a family or small group to show unusual kindness to someone in need or to a group of people in your city who are often forgotten. Need some ideas? Check out Serve the City, the Brussels site of quite an amazing movement which is spreading across Europe. May the Lord be blessed as you cultivate kindness,
© 2011 Elizabeth de Smaele, Deeper Devotion Ministry
Cultivate Kindness, p. 1
2. Reciprocal Kindness – Ephesians 2:4-10 I love what Kenneson shares about the early Christians being spoken of as ‘the kind ones’. What a lovely mistake that people who didn’t know about the Christ but came in contact with his followers mixed up the Greek word for Christ, christos, with chrestos, meaning ‘kind’. That could only have happened because kindness was so characteristic of these believers. Belief in the gospel had so transformed the early Christians that they became renowned for the kindness they showed to others. This is at the heart of our work this week. We can read about kindness, pray about it, be convinced of the value of cultivating this virtue, but we will be known as ‘kind ones’ only as we are kind. Not in random acts, for the sake of the good feeling it gives, but through intentional acts of kindness, meaningful because they connect personally with the individual and/or their need. I wonder how we could be transformed into people who are known for their kindness. Could it start with our gratitude for God’s kindness to us? If we really grasp this and allow it to sink into our hearts, will we perhaps be compelled to extend kindness to others? Kindness received in abundance, generating kindness extended in abundance? Could it be that our intentional acts of kindness are actually a way to say ‘thank you’ to the Lord? With this in mind, read Ephesians 2:4-7. Stop at verse 7, resisting for the moment going further. Read it again, paying attention to the kindness God has shown in Christ. Ponder those verses, letting them sink into your soul. Can you fathom the Father’s kindness to you? What effect does it have on you? How would you like it to affect you? After your reflection feels complete, go on to read verses 8-10. How do they speak to you in light of the previous verses? How about practicing intentional acts of kindness throughout this week as response of gratitude?
© 2011 Elizabeth de Smaele, Deeper Devotion Ministry
Cultivate Kindness, p. 2
2. Hesed The Hebrew word hesed is one of the most beautiful words in the Bible. It’s a difficult word for a Canadian to say because the ‘h’ is guttural. I’ve become quite good at guttural consonants since learning Dutch which has a guttural ‘g’, so to say ‘good morning’ or ‘Gerda’ or most words with a ‘g’ you have to reach back in your throat and gather up a good hork. (Oops am I allowed to say that in a devotional?) I may have just ruined the beauty of the word for you, but give it a try. Practise saying hesed a few times, getting used to using your throat to form the ‘h’. Hesed is beautiful not only because of how it sounds but because of its depth of meaning. It is difficult to translate because there is no English word which can capture its nuances. Hesed expresses God’s unconditional love, perfect in that it does not change according to the behaviour or loyalty of the one being loved. Hesed is rendered in English as: kindness, mercy, loving kindness, steadfast love, great love, loyal love, goodness and devotion. Translators try their best to bring across the nuances which the word ‘love’ simply can’t contain. Consider Lamentations 3:22 where four different translations capture a different nuance (words in italics) in their attempts to express the depth of this word. The faithful love of the Lord keeps us from destruction, his mercies never cease. (NLT) Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. (NIV) It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. (KJV) It is because of the Lord’s loving-kindness that we are not destroyed for His loving-pity never ends. (New Life Version) Hesed is inherent to God’s character. (God is hesed after all.) Try your hand at catching the nuances of this word by inserting several of the English renderings to the hesed within these verses: Psalm 23:6 - Surely goodness and hesed shall follow me all the days of my life… Psalm 136:1 - LORD you are good and your hesed endures forever. Psalm 36:5 – Your hesed, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Now do the same with Micah’s clear instruction about our appropriate response to God’s hesed: Micah 6:8 He has shown you what is good, and what does the LORD require of you? To act justly, to love hesed, and to walk humbly with your God. (NLT) Choose your favourite rendering of one of the above Psalms and of Micah 6:8, and carry them with you throughout this week.
© 2011 Elizabeth de Smaele, Deeper Devotion Ministry
Cultivate Kindness, p. 3
3. Kindness Personified – Ruth 2
The LORD…has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead. Ruth 2:20 Ruth is a pearl of a story set in the time of the Judges. While Israel followed a cycle of doing ‘what was right in their own eyes’ (the phrase is used as a refrain through the book of Judges), Ruth and Boaz stand out as persons of noble character who demonstrate unusual kindness and, in doing so, mirror the LORD’s kindness. In the opening chapter of Ruth, Naomi and her daughters-in-law have all lost their husbands, and Naomi invites her two Moabite daughters-in-law to go back to their own people saying, “May the LORD show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead and to me (v.8).” Ruth pledges to stay with her and the two women head back to Naomi’s hometown, Bethlehem. There a distraught woman tells her people to call her Mara (bitter) instead of Naomi (pleasant) because of how the Almighty has treated her. She went away full but has returned home empty. But she is not completely empty, for she still has Ruth! And Ruth responds to her mother-in-law’s despair by putting into action her commitment to stand by her. Read Ruth 2, picking up a little early at verse 16 of chapter 1. As you read, look out for the kindness shown to Naomi by Ruth, to Ruth by Boaz, and to these two destitute women by the LORD. Notice the effect this has upon Naomi whose spirit is renewed by the events of the day. You might want to read to the end of the book if you have time (today or later this week), but chapter 2 already is enough for us to consider the kindness it reflects. Consider how Ruth and Naomi’s (and later Boaz’s) eyes were opened to see God’s kindness to them. Consider how open your eyes are to see God’s acts of kindness in the world around you. Does your response to tough circumstances tend to be more like Naomi’s, who turned inward and became immobilized? Or is it more like Ruth’s who does what she can, ready to see God act? I encourage you to write down a prayer in response to today’s reading and perhaps to blog about it as well. I preached a sermon on Ruth 2 this past spring. You can access Acts of Kindness via my church’s website if you’d like.
© 2011 Elizabeth de Smaele, Deeper Devotion Ministry
Cultivate Kindness, p. 4
4. Community Kindness – 1Thessalonians 5:12-24 The church at Thessalonica was a fairly model church. Strong in faith, hope and love, Paul commends them for how they were growing in practising these virtues. Read his final remarks as he closes his first letter to the church, paying attention to the instructions that relate to the practice of kindness. Paul’s concern in these verses is primarily the church’s relations with one another. How are you doing in extending kindness among your brothers and sisters in Christ? Perhaps many of your acts of kindness this week have been toward people in your workplace, neighbourhood and family. How do these verses speak into your relationships within the Grace community? Read them again and ask God to reveal anything which merits your attention or calls for an action on your part. Make a note of anything which comes to mind, and then close your time with praying 1 Thess 5:23-24.
© 2011 Elizabeth de Smaele, Deeper Devotion Ministry
Cultivate Kindness, p. 5
