Overwhelming Kindness | Week Thirty-Five

‘Do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?’

Romans 2:4

In 2016, I got on a plane, and headed for the US. I said to the Lord, ‘Now it’s between me and You.’ We had things to sort out, disappointments to work through, and the deep healing was about to be kickstarted.

For the next nine months, a phrase kept repeating in my head: ‘His kindness overwhelms me.’ All around me, my friends were getting tattoos, and for a brief moment, I considered getting a tattoo as well with that phrase on my body. Thankfully, I didn’t. Instead, I wrote it on my bathroom mirror, and every morning, I meditated on that verse.

I recently read a devotional by Lynette Kittle on Crosswalk.com, and she writes the following:

‘God’s words are alive and active, and sharper than any double-edged sword penetrating and dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; and thoughts and attitude of the heart (Hebrews 4:12), and His kindness has a way of speaking, too, in a gentler and deeper way than we can imagine.’

When I think back on those months, I remember how gentle and soft the Lord worked with me.  Repentance means to change our way of thinking, to renew our minds. Every day felt like heart surgery, but it was necessary and freed me from so many lies and pain.

Lynette finishes off her devotional with the following, and I couldn’t have written it any better:

‘If anyone knows about kindness changing hearts, it’s God. Oh, when God sheds His kindness on us, how are any able to resist? His kindness melts the hardest hearts, heals and restores the deepest brokenness, and makes anew the most shattered souls.’

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