The Divine Nudge
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3:12 NIV)
Every once in a while, the Holy Spirit gives me a nudge. My thoughts too frequently are selfish. So when I get a sudden practical idea of how to bless someone else, I try to act on it.
Do I believe my sudden inspiration to show kindness is the Holy Spirit’s idea?
Yes I do.
But beyond that, kindness is becoming more and more meaningful in our culture.
The Anger Paradox
Decades ago, people were taught that letting your anger out and venting all over everyone—sorry, I’m paraphrasing—was emotionally healthy. By releasing pent-up rage; you freed yourself of inner stress. Some therapists even brought other family members into a counseling session just so their patient could scream at them.
What everyone soon discovered is that the more times people gave in to their anger, the angrier they became.
Doing spontaneous acts of kindness effects our hearts too, but in the opposite way. I can’t bless someone regularly and continue to dislike them. My heart softens, Soon they become people I genuinely care about.
Kindness for our Enemies
In the Holy Scriptures, God challenges us to show kindness even toward our enemies. He wants us to keep our hearts open—and to truly reflect our Master.
21 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat;
if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
22 In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head,
and the Lord will reward you. (Proverbs 25:21-22 NIV, repeated in Romans 12:20)
The phrase, “heap burning coals on his head” sounds painful. My understanding, however, is that in biblical times someone returning from a long trip often found their fireplace reduced to cold ashes. A neighbor who provided burning coals allowed the travelers to rekindle their cooking fire quickly.
So “burning coals’ was another way to bless an enemy.
Becoming a Divinely Inspired Blessing
The Holy Spirit’s gentle nudge might even cause us to be an answer to another Christian’s prayer. Because the Lord will often use us when we aren’t looking.
That first happened to me back in college.
A Case of Toothpaste
My dad worked as an engineer at the company where they first packaged Aquafresh toothpaste. Aquafresh toothpaste is white with one red stripe and one blue strip; it’s tricolor. What I’m about to say is the absolute truth. Two engineers spent all day squeezing each tube of toothpaste once, to try to tweak the packaging process so that the stripes came out of the tube correctly.
These engineers succeeded in their quest. But unfortunately, you can’t sell a tube of toothpaste that’s already been squeezed.
So what do you do?
You give the tubes to your employees as “free samples.”
I was at Michigan State when my dad handed me a small case of Aquafresh. Naturally I handed it out in my college dorm floor mates. One Christian woman was out of money and out of toothpaste. She’d been praying that God would meet her need.
So she got two tubes of toothpaste.
Can you spell e-x-c-i-t-e-d?
I became God’s answer to her prayer and it’s a great feeling.
A Simple Way to be Salt and Light
We’ve all noticed the shift. People in America have become more vicious, cruel and mean-spirited, especially on social media.
So live a life of kindness. Respond to the Holy Spirit’s promptings and do any loving or generous act that occurs to you.
God will use it to change lives—and maybe even bring some people into His kingdom of light for all eternity.
These two images came from Pixabay.com.
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