HOW KIND SHOULD WE AS CHRISTIANS BE?
HOW KIND SHOULD WE AS CHRISTIANS BE?
A Norwegian politician composed a word “snillisme” meaning a wrong kindness a few years ago. It means that you give and give without any limits and without asking for any kind of responsibilities. I meet this kind of problems quite often and had a talk with a Christian sister today about these problems. I had asked God for two days to give me a topic, but it didn’t come before today and now I have to trust Him to be with me in the continuation of the writing. I do not believe that I have all the answers, but will mention some problems and some thoughts around this theme.
If you are born again, you have the seeds of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in your new-born spirit. (Gal.5:22-23) God is love and let it rain over the righteous and unrighteous. (Matt.5:45) I received tis word once when I was wondering what I should do when Muslims and Hindus came for prayers in India. Jesus is the Savior for all humanity and He wants everybody saved. He loved us while we were still sinners.(Rom.5:8) Jesus didn’t die and rose because we deserved to be justified by His blood, but it was done by pure grace. Jesus loves us unconditionally and has given us eternal life. It isn’t easy to understand, but He has given us an example to follow even if we shouldn’t die. We should show love to others without expecting a thank you and love in return. Do you remember the story about the lepers? Only one came back to say thank you, but all of them remained healthy. The Lord didn’t allow the sickness to return because of their ingratitude. Many of us pray for Christians as well as non-believers and many are healed. That could lead to their salvation.
God’s unconditional love lives in us and we can show that to everybody no matter color, land or rank. The Lord wants us to do good deeds, deeds that He has already prepared for us. Read Ephesians 2:10. This is the key for doing good deeds.
It is therefore smart to ask God if you should do the things you desire to do, the things others want you to do or the things you think you must do. When I have done things out of self –imposed duty or things others have told me to do without asking Him, I have not seen a good fruit as a result. Today I am much more careful in asking the Lord and I wait for an answer. Sometimes we are too eager and other times we are to slow and come with excuses and miss opportunities that the Lord has prepared.
God is unconditionally kind to us and we should be the same to everybody else.
Now comes the question: What is love? Is love without boundaries? I do not believe that it is. I do not believe that we can follow our own desires and lusts at any time. I have quite often seen parents in churches allowing their children to roam around. They are distutbing their own parents, those sitting around them, the preacher and The Holy Spirit. I can almost hear some of you saying that I am exaggerating now. No, the children take the attention away from what The Holy Spirit will convey. Children without any boundaries will often become adults without any concern for others and they might become difficult to cooperate with. Some will become rebellious toward God as well as human beings. A few might fall into criminality and a misuse of any kind. Is this kind? No. It is not pleasant to hear that one is stupid and harsh and that no one else has that kind of rules, but parents should be so stable and mature that they should endure a little rejection from their children. They must lay down their lives for their children. Children need boundaries, but they should naturally change according to age. They must learn that their behavior result in positive and negative reactions.
Free upbringing is not very kind.
It is not very kind to allow fear of men to rule you and therefore avoid testifying about Jesus. When we keep quiet about our faith, we can lead others to hell. I know that there are times when deeds speak louder than words, but humanism has stopped many from sharing their faith. Humanism is not necessarily kind.
Have you met people going from church to church, from gatherings to gatherings in order to ask for help? They might ask for prayers, but many do not really want help and take a lot of attention. Some of these people are mentally unstable. Some have delusions and accuse everybody else for their problems. How much attention should we give to these people? What is really kind? It is a difficult question, but I really do not think that they should be allowed to disturb a meeting or a prayer group. If they are saved, they cannot be possessed, but many of them have demonic powers in their soul and body. These demons want attention. The Bible says that we should resist the devil and we should therefor avoid giving them unnecessary attention. If they disturb, we can kindly ask them to be quiet. If they won’t listen, we can nicely lead them outside. If they want prayers, I would recommend that some trained people do this and not a big group that can come with contradictory prayers. I have had to let people go lately since they have been unwilling to be delivered. Some need some teaching before we enter into that kind of praying, but some do not want to change or do not believe in having demons. I invite them to come back when they are ready and bless them. My time is the Lord’s time and I want to use my time in fruit – bearing activities. I think that it is important to give people plenty of time to talk, but is comes to a point when one must present the truth and give them a choice to change.
It isn’t kind to always be a yes-man or a yes-woman. The truth will set us free!
Jesus gave His life for us, but He didn’t run after the rich man that hesitated to give away all he had. The Bible is full of ifs. That means that we have many spiritual laws and regulations. These are given to us since God knows what is best for us.
What do we Christians do with people coming from other countries? What do we do with beggars? Do we talk to them? Do we pray for and with them? Do we help them with shelters and food? I need to learn from my daughter. She takes their hand and prays for them, always giving them a smile and a greeting and occasionally buys something for them. We should not be unwise and take people we can’t trust with us home, but I need to repent and start giving the needy more love. A smile, a handshake and a prayer doesn’t cost much.
Mark 16 says that all believers should lay hands on the sick and drive out demons. This is part of the love package that we are commanded to do. We must never forget that Jesus lives inside of us. What would He has said and what would He had done? We all like to be seen and I see that those congregations that are clever in seeing people and giving attention, grow.
The devil will most often talk and act through people. We must take authority over the demons then, but not forget the person in question. That isn’t always easy. We need a lot of God’s love and wisdom then.
KINDNESS IS TO SAY BOTH YES AND NO IN LOVE. WE SHOULD GIVE, BUT NOT BEING MISUSED!
Mother Else