GOODNESS
Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it. —Pablo Casals
Paul posed one of the most compelling questions when he challenged the Romans:
You surely don’t think much of God’s wonderful goodness or of His patience and willingness to put up with you. Don’t you know that the reason God is good to you is because He wants you to turn to Him?
(Romans 2:4 CEV)
It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance. It is only because of God’s goodness that we can have any hope of being good ourselves. One of the most detoxifying things you can do for your soul is to turn to God and repent. When you turn away from thoughts and habits that are contrary to the Spirit of Christ, and instead turn toward God and His ways, you become “rich in goodness.” As Paul told the Romans:
“You yourselves are rich in goodness, amply filled with all [spiritual] knowledge” (Rom. 15:14 AMP).
Get reacquainted with your authentic self. Determine to be filled with God’s goodness, and to express it. After the knowledge of, and obedience to, the will of God, the next aim must be to know something of His attributes of wisdom, power, and goodness as evidenced by His handiwork. —James Prescott Joule
ACTION STEPS
- Examine your life, your habits, your heart, and your thoughts: Are they an expression of the life of Christ in you, “rich in goodness”?
- How might these things be different if they consisted of “every form of goodness”?
- Think of one negative thing you can replace with something positive.
For the fruit…of the Light or the Spirit [consists] in every form of kindly goodness, uprightness of heart, and trueness of life (Eph. 5:9 AMP).
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