God is Kind

But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness(Psalms 86:15)

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The great impostor of kindness is manipulation--niceness with a hidden agenda. Real kindness never has an ulterior motive. Whenever a hidden agenda supports a kind act, the act itself ceases to be kind.

Most people’s response to a kind act is “What do you want from me?” It is almost beyond belief that someone would do something nice for us without wanting something in return. “There are no free lunches", we tell our children.

Often, when someone is kind, we seek to control the situation by paying back what was done--let ourselves off the hook, even the score so we won’t be indebted to the person.

Real kindness humbles us, and we don’t like that feeling. Until we are able to receive authentic kindness we will never know the heart of God!

“Acts of kindness” don’t necessarily come from the heart. Anyone can “act out” kindness, and many kind acts are just that, an act.

God is not who many of us were taught that he was. God is love, and love is kind; therefore, God is kind. God never uses manipulation--fear, guilt, threat of brutality--to get people to behave. If it is not kind, with no strings attached, then it is not God.