Dave's Diary

Daily Reading: Isaiah 63:7-9

This week we’re considering kindness as a “flavour” of the Fruit of the Spirit, which He is hard at work to produce in us.

In today’s reading, the prophet Isaiah praises the kindness of God, but notice that twice in v.7 he refers to the “kindnesses” of the LORD. Isaiah understood correctly that kindness was not just an attitude which God held in His heart towards His people, it was something God did. The kind deed was in itself “a kindness”. This drives home the point that kindness is always active. Kindness is love in action. One cannot be kind only in one’s intentions. Those intentions need to take the shape of “kindnesses” – actions done in the spirit of kindness.

God saw the plight of His people and felt their pain with them. In His compassion, He empathised with the hardships of His beloved people in exile: “In their distress, He was distressed” (v.9). But this compassion and empathy would not have been truly kind except that they led God to take action on His people’s behalf and to “become their Saviour” (v.8). God stepped in to deliver them from their distress, and in that moment He performed kindness.

To be kind requires that we open our eyes to see and our hearts to feel the struggles of others, with compassionate empathy. It requires that we consider how to use our power and resources to relieve them of their distress, and that we then step into action to do “kindnesses” towards them. Without action there is no kindness.

Holy Spirit, open my eyes today to see the situations of distress into which You are calling me to pour Your kindnesses. Grant me empathy for the needs of others, and empower me to manifest Your kindness through putting Your love into action. Amen.