No matter how painful our lives are or have been, we all have tasted enough of the kindness of God to love him and worship him forever.

I was speaking with a relative recently who has lived long and experienced much hardship, suffering, and loss. In such seasons she has repeatedly experienced help from other people that enabled her to survive and cope. She has never forgotten the kindnesses people have shown in her times of need, and she lives to do the same for others. She said, “The human virtue that I value most is kindness.”

She is not the only one.

It is kindness, God’s kindness, that draws us to him.

God sends rain on the just and the unjust

God is both benevolent, as we saw in my previous post, and beneficent. These words do not have the same meaning.

Webster’s dictionary defines beneficent as “doing or producing good” especially in the sense of “performing acts of kindness and charity.” Last week we looked at God’s goodwill, which is an attitude; today we look at his good actions.

Acts 17:25 says God “himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”

Psalm 145:9, 15, 16 says, “The LORD is good to all, and hismercy is over all that he has made…. The eyes of all look to you, and you givethem their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire ofevery living thing.”

Jesus said that our Father in heaven “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).

God does good things for everyone, even those who reject him and do extreme evil. He shows universal kindness.

For example, our five senses

God gives not only sunshine and rain to all kinds of people, even to those who do not return his love as they should, but also such wonderful gifts as the five human senses: eyesight to look upon the beauties that fill the earth; hearing, which enables us to communicate with others and enjoy music; smell, which enables us to taste food (thanks be to God!) and enjoy the fragrances of flowers and nature; taste; and touch (imagine going through daily life with a body that could not sense touch, as though you received a 24/7, full-body novocaine shot).

Any one of these senses is a treasure by itself. All come from the God of universal kindness, not from evolution, not “mother nature,” not from chance, but from the deliberate design of the God who controls all things in your life even before you are born. If you have any physical senses, you should thank not your parents or your chromosomes, but your beneficent God. They are just one example of his kindness.

Entitled

One indicator of just how great is God’s universal kindness is how much people take their blessings for granted and either neglect to thank God or deny that he is the source of every good. God’s universal kindness is so great that people think that they deserve a life filled with good things. They think the world just ought to be filled with sunshine, rain, fertile soil, food of innumerable varieties, people, natural resources in the ground, blue sky and livable temperatures, green grass, beautiful and fruitful trees, flowers, birds, edible vegetables, animals, fish, clean water, music—to name just a few of our God’s universal kindnesses.

If we go to Mars or any other planet, we see that such a profusion of goodness is not automatic.

Obviously, not every person enjoys every kindness. In our fallen world, which groans under the consequences of sin, life in this world can be cruel, and people can suffer great harm, deprivation, and handicap. But even in those circumstances, there is goodness and mercy from God. There is the gift of existence as a conscious, living being, of this earthly life, and the offer of eternal life through God’s gift of Jesus Christ.

God’s love is beneficent, marked by universal kindness expressed to every person. It is an expression of his grace, his unmerited favor. And it also has a purpose: “God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance” (Romans 2:4).

God’s wallet

I read one author who said he always carries a one-hundred-dollar bill in his wallet reserved for one purpose. He gives it away as God leads.

Likewise, God has an infinite number of one-hundred-dollar bills in his wallet, and he’s giving them all away, daily, over and over again, to every person in the world. He enjoys it. His beneficence is the tangible expression of his benevolence. His universal kindness is the concrete outworking of his goodwill.

Our way and God’s way

Our way: To feel that God owes us more.

God’s way: To lavish kindness on all.