Acts of kindness
We don’t eat out very often, but when we do, we love to go to Côte Brasserie. They are a chain of French style restaurants and our local one is very popular.
My wife and I decided to go there as a treat to celebrate my birthday. We arrived and were seated on a bustling Friday night.
As we enjoyed our food we spotted some friends enjoying a meal across the restaurant, and had a brief chat with them.
When we had finished we asked for the bill, and the waitress told us that it had been paid for! We were speechless, as this has never happened to us before. So we simply got up and left!
We wondered if it may have been the people we saw, but to this day, we do not know if it was them or not? This was a random act of kindness, that quite simply blew us away!
The book of Acts, in the Bible, records what happened after Jesus returned to heaven, showing what His disciples did next.
On one occasion, Peter and John healed a man lame from birth, who used to beg outside the Temple in Jerusalem. This remarkable miracle did not go unnoticed by the Religious authorities, who questioned them…
“Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: ‘Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed’.”
Peter and the other disciples had experienced a powerful infilling of the Holy Spirit after Jesus returned to heaven. This changed and empowered them to speak boldly about Jesus and to perform miracles, just like Jesus did.
I believe that the same Holy Spirit is still around today – changing and empowering people. I have experienced that personally and seen it in others too.
The Holy Spirit dwells within us, helping us to live for God. He also prompts and empowers us to talk about Jesus and to do what Jesus did.
Today, let me invite you to ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit, and to follow His leading into ‘acts of kindness’…
God bless you:)
Gary Bastin
Hope Community Church leader