Kindness is what the world needs more of. We struggle to be kind to others—especially to those we don’t know. To promote kindness, the term “Random Acts of Kindness” was coined, and a week, February 14 to February 20, is devoted to reminding us to be kind, even when it’s “random.” Kindness is culturally defined as the voluntary act of being friendly, generous, and considerate toward others, often driven by empathy and compassion, reflecting a genuine desire for their well-being.
According to the American Psychiatric Association's 2023 survey*, the most common acts of kindness shown are:
- Saying hello to a stranger (69%);
- Holding a door open (68%);
- Giving a compliment (65%).
The next most common act of kindness is checking in on someone, but that drops down to 38%. These statistics seem to indicate that most acts of kindness are superficial, having little true impact in our lives.
God’s kindness is not random but purposeful; it is not superficial but truly what we need—and there is no shortage of God’s kindness! The first time we read of God’s kindness is toward the end of Abraham’s life in Genesis 24.
The context of Genesis 24 is a season of grieving: Abraham’s wife has just passed. In fact, the whole family is still deep in grief. We find Isaac is in the field reflecting in sadness (Genesis 24:63). Abraham wanted to find a wife for his son, Isaac, and he wanted his most trusted servant to go alone, back to his homeland in Ur of the Chaldees, to find a wife amongst his relatives. Isaac’s wife must not be from among the Canaanites who had populated the land they had journeyed as nomads, nor is the servant to take Isaac back to the land of Abraham’s family. Isaac was never to leave the Promised Land, and he dwelt his entire life in the land God promised Abraham. Isaac was not to abandon the promise to return to a previous place. In Genesis 24:7, Abraham was holding onto the promise of God as reason to believe God will provide a wife for his son from the appropriate source. It’s faith in God’s promises that becomes the foundation of my hope! It is God’s kindness that leads me to believe God will keep His promises to me.
As the servant undertakes this important task, he prayed for God to “show kindness to my master Abraham” (verse 12). I think this prayer was motivated by the grief the family was experiencing. As the servant prayed for God’s kindness, he was appealing for mercy. The Hebrew word for kindness used in Genesis 24 is most often translated “mercy” and literally means “please give relief.” We pray this prayer in desperation: Give relief from my stress, from anxiety, from my grief. We are asking God to provide a way out. In times of grieving, that is all we want—relief from the pain of the loss of our loved one. The challenge of grief is: Can I still trust God’s kindness?
The servant prayed for God’s kindness because he believed God was actively working, so he asked God for a specific sign of who Isaac’s bride was to be (Genesis 24:13-14). The servant trusted God’s kindness! God answered his prayer before he even finished praying (Genesis 24:15-19). That is God’s kindness in action!
King David would later write this description of God, “The Lord is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in compassion and lovingkindness” (Psalm 103:8). The English Standard Version Bible translates the Hebrew word for lovingkindness as “steadfast love.” I have often called this a “stubborn love,” a love that continues to love regardless of the worthiness of the recipient. It is a love that overcomes a multitude of sins; a love that treats the other person kindly even when they deserve a swift kick. Even in the darkest of times, God’s kindness is noticeable. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22–23). What a great statement of God’s kindness, a kindness we are unworthy of.
When we are going through dark times of grief, we must hold on to the promise of God’s kindness. I am learning that faith looks at every circumstance as an opportunity for God to work. Jesus promised Martha in her time of deep grief, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25–26). Do you believe this? For many people, belief is easy until a crisis happens, then we are challenged to make it our faith by acting upon that belief. Belief is a matter of trust. To say, as the desperate father proclaimed to Jesus, “I believe ... help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24).
Can you trust that Jesus will bring resurrection even when you don’t understand what is going on?
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4–7).
When you are grieving the fact that life is unkind and seeking relief from the pain, pray for God’s kindness and put your hope in the resurrection, as this is the ultimate promise God has made to us.
For deeper insight into walking through loss with faith and honesty, explore Living in the Shadow of Grief: Enlarging Your Capacity to Grieve With Hope. You can even begin with a free sample chapter, offering a glimpse into this guide for navigating sorrow while discovering how God gently enlarges our capacity to grieve with hope.
*https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-11-small-kindness-americans-poll.html (retrieved 3/12/26)
