Drawn With Kindness!

"The LORD appeared to us in the past,saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness." (Jeremiah 31:3 NIV)

I will be the first to admit that sometimes, trying to expound upon God's Word does not always seem like we're trying to draw people with kindness. But then, I have to think about what kindness is.

Is it a kindness to let people follow a path, blindly, when we know there is danger ahead?
Is it a kindness to give people incomplete instructions and hope they'll figure it out?
Is it a kindness to let people think there are no consequences for disobedience?
Is it a kindness to tell people they must do, "as we say" or "do?"
Is it a kindness to let people wander through life believing there is no hell?

Loving parents always have rules to protect their children and since God is our loving Father, He has rules to protect us from harm. The rules are simply this--love Him with all our heart and mind (spiritually and naturally) and to love others as ourselves.

To truly love God would mean that we understand Him, in order to understand Him, we have to know Him and in order to know Him, we have to know how He wants us to live, and in order to know how He wants us to live, we must get into His Word. That's how we love Him with all our heart and mind.

To love others as we love ourselves, we must think about how we treat ourselves. Do we abuse and misuse us? Do we lie and steal from ourselves? Do we sabotage our own progress? Do we manipulate ourselves and cause harm to us? Now, while I know the answer to these questions is sometimes--a resounding yes, that yes for Believers should be in our Before Christ (BC) time. Now that we know better, we should be doing better. I have learned that we cannot truly love anyone else until we first love us. We cannot give what we do not have.

Now, do we have all the tools we need to draw others to Jesus Christ? We do, if we love Him and love self. When we allow Holy Spirit to lead us in all we do, He will instruct us in how to speak truth, without it being a lie, but will convict of sin and ignite desire to please God. That is being drawn with kindness!