BROWNIE POINTS
"A new command I give you: Love one another." John 13:34a

      One day the Lord said to me, "In the past, you did kind deeds for others to win "brownie points" with me. You thought you could earn your way to heaven by doing nice things for people. I want you to read the Bible and see what My word says about heaven."

      I found the answer in Ephesians 2:8. This scripture made it very clear: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not of yourselves, it is a gift of God--not by works." So God wanted me to see that my motive for doing nice things for people was wrong. "Well, Lord, what about doing kind deeds?" I queried. Again, He said, "Look in my word."

   I looked up the word "Kindness" in the concordance of my Bible I found many references on kindness.

         Blessed is he who is kind to the needy. Pro. 14:21b
         Whoever is kind to the needy honors God. Pro. 14:31b
         Love is patient, Love is kind. 1 Cor. 13:4
         Be kind and compassionate to one another. Eph. 4:32
 
      The most compelling of references is what Jesus spoke to his disciples at the last supper: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." John 13:34

      So, my motive was wrong and I had to change the way I viewed things. Being kind is clearly a good thing, but the motive behind my actions must be because God has commanded it.

      Since that day, I have tried to live by what I've learned from God's word.  But it has not always been easy.  I can think of many times when I certainly did not feel like being kind to someone but knew that I must because of my knowledge of God's command.  Unconditional love (kindness) is not that simple to put into practice, especially when people rub you the wrong way.

      I am confident God will bring about the necessary changes as I submit to his word.  I am also confident that I will spend eternity in Heaven because I have asked Jesus into my heart to be my Savior and Lord of my life.