Tuesday Reflection September 14,2021

Human Kindness Begets Supernatural Favor.

Have you ever been told to be kind to others because kindness leads to kindness? Show kindness to others and kindness will be shown to you. That’s what I was told as a child. It was sort of like a mantra in our home with our parents, my maternal grandmother, six brothers and one cousin. It’s important to note that the seven of us were all boys and we were not gentle. Not with those in the community and not with each other. My grandma and especially my mother somehow believed we could be kind and gentle and they never relented from challenging us to portray our best side. Show kindness to others and kindness will be shown to you, they would impress on us. As I read the watchword for today, I thank God for their efforts because all seven of us have successfully learned to be our kindest selves, to be true gentlemen, wherever we are. In fact, without even realizing it, we have all been recipients of God’s gracious kindness repeatedly. We can all attests to the truth of the watchword that human kindness leads to supernatural favor. Psalm 41: 1 is the Watchword for today. Happy are those who consider the poor; the Lord delivers them in the day of trouble.

Taken in its context, this verse points out the responsibility of the community to care for those in need. In this case it points to a specific need. Those who are poor. The word used in the original language further categorizes the word ‘poor’ to mean the sick, the weak in body or the sick at heart. In Psalm 40, David describes himself as poor and needy or rather humiliated and weak. His experience was that in that needy time, God raised up a community of support and strength around him, moving him from being pursued by many enemies, his life threatened, to his coronation as King of Israel and Judah. As David reflected, he realized how blessed not only he was, but those who had helped him were as well. They had been delivered, restored, and now shared in his elevation to the throne. David saw God’s hand at work in the process, repaying their kindness, their loyalty to him when he was needy and humiliated.

The Deuteronomic law made clear the responsibility of the community to the poor, the needy, those who were destitute. Deut 15: 11 For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore, I command you, “You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.” Note that poverty can come in an instant and the times of health crisis in which we are now living have seen countless businesses close putting many out of jobs. At the same time many have become emotionally broken with the loss of loved ones. We have more emotionally and physically poor among us that we are used to seeing. Ours is the responsibility to reach out in care to them, to lend a helping hand. Prov 19: 17 tells us, Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed. Our kindness to the poor is noted by the Lord who Himself rewards us with his favor. Note that we should not help for the reward, but because we have a compassionate heart for the needs of others. God rewards us according to the intention of our hearts. In Luke 6: 35 Jesus challenges us to have kind hearts which leads to God’s divine favor. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. When our kindness is unbounded, God’s supernatural favor to us will be unlimited. Put simply, the more we give, the more we get. God’s kindness to us is directly related to our kindness to those in need. Amen