DEVOTION: June 8

Her words were biting and cut deep, and she meant every last one of them:

You’re so terrible. You deserve this. Actually, you deserve nothing. You’re pathetic and weak. Not to mention ugly, unworthy and a loser. This is all your own fault.

And she spat more words that were harsher and meaner, saying them with sincerity and gusto.

And it broke my heart, because she was talking to herself.

We all identify with this, in some way, shape or form. We look in the mirror and the words we think and speak to who we see staring back at us are ugly, mean, and filled with hate; words we’d never in a million years think about those we love. We’re the most critical of ourselves; our own expectations far exceed those of others. Receiving the love of Christ then becomes near impossible; we can’t believe it because we think so little of ourselves, we become the one exception to His love and kindness.

A warped version of pride, really.

The fruit of the Spirit is kindness, but showing it to ourselves can be the most difficult. And if we can’t be kind to ourselves, we actually end up having a very limited capacity for kindness toward others, too. 

Matthew Henry says that kindness “shows itself in a readiness to do good to all as we have opportunity.” That “all” includes you. It includes me. It means doing good to me by speaking life and not death over myself. It means believing Truth over the lies. It means letting my head convince my heart again and again that I am loved, delighted over, fought for fiercely.

The more we begin to believe the Truth of what God thinks about us, the more we’re able to fully display these fruits to others. And once others begin to see how incredible this fruit of the Spirit of God is, the more we can share His love with them.

“Nothing is more appealing than speaking beautiful, life-giving words. For they release sweetness to our souls and inner healing to our spirits.” (Proverbs 16:24, The Passion Translation)