It was His idea

Monday morning to YOU!  I hope every one of you had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving with your friends and family.  There is something so special about Thanksgiving week for me (Nicole) and I look forward to that week full of remembrance and thanksgiving all week.  This year was extra special.  I spent the weekend before thanksgiving week in Georgia with Jamie, Jessica, and Savannah!  Yep, the Fearless gals were all in one place together, and it was perfect, y’all.  I’m sure you will hear more about our fun weekend at the end of the week, but I can’t wait that long to show you a picture of us ALL TOGETHER.  :)

As Jessica likes to call us, “The Fearless Four”! Ha!

We are starting this Monday with a little post on kindness. 

Let’s just jump right in the Word, shall we?

“Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in the world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:7 MSG

If that doesn’t make you want to jump up and down on a Monday morning, I don’t know what will!

Let’s unpack this verse a little bit by looking at it from the end to the beginning.  It is IN Christ that we are shown kindness.  God shows us kindness THROUH the life of Christ.  Isn’t that essential to our faith?  Because of Jesus Christ, all good things flow. 

Let’s look at the next few verses in that passage before going back to 2:7.

“Saving is all his idea, and all his work.  All we do is trust him enough to let him do it.  It’s God’s gift from start to finish!  We don’t play the major role.”

Wow, rich stuff.  Kindness originated with God.  When Adam and Eve sinned and caused the human race to fall, God decided to send someone to take the blame.  Even though we did NOTHING to deserve the grace that came through the blood of Jesus Christ, He sent him anyway.  God IS kindness.

As Ephesians 2:7 says, God has all the time in the world and the next to shower us with his grace and kindness.  Do you know what that means?

His grace and kindness won’t stop.  EVER.

Grace, love, forgiveness, kindness and every good thing was his idea.  Nothing that we have ever done has made us worthy.  The “saving thing” was all his idea and all we ever have to do is trust him.  That’s it!  We don’t have to wrap our lives in a little bow and pretend everything is perfect.  We can rest in his perfect love, forgiveness and kindness.

To lead us into our discussions about having kindness towards others this week, let’s apply this:

God showed us eternal kindness by sending his son to die for us, even though we mocked him, laughed at him, and are ultimately unworthy of his forgiveness.

God showed us THAT kind of kindness.

Aren’t we supposed to reflect the heart of God?

Here is my challenge for you.  This week think of someone that you haven’t shown kindness to “because”.  You know that that “because” is for you. 

Maybe the person really hurt your feelings.

Maybe the person went out to hurt you on purpose.

Maybe the person turned their back on you when you needed them most.

Maybe the person has been downright MEAN.

Whatever the “because” is for you, I want you to think about one way that you can show the kindness of Christ to them.  God could urge you just to pray for them, or he may push you to be so bold as to step out of your comfort zone to show kindness to them.

Whatever the case, be Jesus to someone else.  Show kindness to them in a world full of people who don’t because of their “because” situations.

After all, Jesus showed kindness to you through the cross regardless of all the reasons he could have withheld it “because”.

We love because Christ loved us. 1 John 4:19

Nicole