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Key Bible Verse: The way you love will always honor and please the Lord, and you will continually do good, kind things for others (Colossians 1:10). Bonus Reading: Colossians 1:9-10; 3:12-14

In 1940 researchers studied 43 American cities and concluded that Rochester, New York, was the kindest city. The researchers used an elaborate procedure to come to this conclusion. A little more than 50 years later, the study was repeated in the same cities. Rochester again came out on top.

Writer John Tompkins determined to find out why Rochester came out on top. His own research, reported in the Reader's Digest, led him to conclude that the city's history of kindness and generosity stemmed from its earliest days. In the mid-1800s, re-nowned evangelist Charles Finney spent six months preaching the gospel and conducting prayer meetings in Rochester. Thousands were converted to Christ. New believers renounced their selfishness and began to give them- selves to others. For a century and a half, the city has maintained this strong track record.

The New Age spirituality philosophers teach their followers to do "random acts of kindness" to feel good about themselves. In sharp contrast, the true spirituality of God's Holy Spirit calls us to take no thought for ourselves but to seek the good of others. We are to be kind at all times, in all places, to all people.

—Michael Youssef in The Spirituality that Heals

My Response: Are believers enhancing the climate of my community? How?

Thought to Apply: Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.—JOHAN VON GOETHE

Adapted from The Spirituality that Heals (WaterBrook, 2003) by permission.

Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Fill me with Your Spirit, Lord, so that Your love will overflow to others in thoughtful actions.

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