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November 2
What this sad world needs
Proverbs 19:20-29
"What is desired in a man is kindness ..." (v.22, NKJV)
Now that we have put into the word "kindness" the content of Jesus -- "treat one another with the same spirit as you experience in Christ Jesus" -- we must now consider how to develop and grow in kindness. Ella Wheeler Wilcox has said:So many gods, so many creedsSo many paths that wind and windWhen all that this sad world needsIs just the art of being kind.
Human kindness may be important, but supernatural kindness is even more important. It is what "this sad world needs." The importance of kindness is seen by the fact that an act of kindness lingers on in the memory. Once, when about to step on to the platform of the Colston Hall, Bristol, to speak to a large audience and feeling a little weighed down by personal circumstances at the time, a few ladies who represented an organization called "Women Aglow" handed me a little box in which was a beautiful flower. Along with it was a message: "We love you and are praying for you." That kindness and the spirit that prompted it stood out like a star on a dark night. I have never forgotten it and will never forget it. It will live on within me until the day I die. If kindness can minister such comfort and encouragement, then how imperative it is that we ask God to ripen this fruit within us. Of the many things surrounding Paul's shipwreck on Malta, Luke recalls in particular that the "islanders showed us unusual kindness" (Acts 28:2).
Prayer:
O Father, help me to demonstrate the fruit of kindness this day so that somebody, somewhere, may use it as a light to lighten their darkness. In Christ's Name I ask. Amen.
For Further Study
Luke 10:30-37; Matthew 23:37; Mark 1:41
1. List at least five kindnesses in this parable.
2. What moved the Samaritan to act in this way?
