Be blessed with active goodness that does not think to repay evil with evil but considers how to leave a blessing from the goodness of Jesus in you. Be energized with your Father’s kindness and goodness for others.
Beloved child of God, listen to your Father’s heart and his ways for you in Galatians 5:22-23,25. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control… Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
Listen to Exodus 33:19. “The LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence.”
God is perfectly good. He forever linked his goodness, his name, and his presence. He invites you to taste and see that he is good (Psalm 35:8, 34:8) and that his name is good (Psalm 52:9). What he does is good and what he gives is good because it flows out of who he is (Psalm 65:4). Out of his goodness he created you and redeemed you. His enduring goodness showered on you his covenant mercy and forgiveness and compassion. Be blessed as you enjoy the unmerited goodness of God in caring for you (Nehemiah 1:7).
Because he is good, he is your merciful and forgiving Father who welcomes a prodigal with a hug, a feast, and a party with music and dancing. Because he is good, he wants good things for you. He is giving and generous and enjoys blessing you. He cannot change, his goodness is constant, never wavering or failing (James 3:17). When you receive his goodness, you receive something of himself.
He is good when he allows tests to refine you into purest gold, and he is good to display his quick sympathy and his tender heart to you when you fall or fail. He is good as he picks you up and holds you in the palm of his hands and will not let you go. His faithful goodness continues through all generations.
Celebrate his goodness with thanksgiving (Jeremiah 33:11). Thank him for being good and for loving you with his abounding love that endures forever (Psalm 118:1,29). Be specific in thanking him for his goodness in everyday things: a sunset, a beautiful fountain, a child’s hug, answered prayers, the kindness of a stranger, a tear of empathy. His goodness is always in evidence, if you are looking, for he is good.
See the acts of goodness in the parable of the Good Samaritan. His pity on the man who had fallen among thieves was the fruit of goodness and nobility of character. He was touched by the helplessness and the distress of another. He reached out to do something about the consequences of sin that were causing the man to suffer. Be blessed as you, too, bind up the wounds of others, minister to their hurts, and bring them to the house of your good Father for his care.
The angels at the birth of Jesus connected the highest glory of God with his good will to men. They announced God’s goodness at the entrance of Jesus to earth. Jesus went about doing good, and he imparts many expressions of his goodness into your being. Be blessed with the virtue of the goodness of Jesus worked into your life. Be blessed to feel the zeal of Jesus for goodness and be energized with his kindness and goodness for others. Be blessed with active goodness that does not think to repay evil with evil but considers how to leave a blessing from the goodness of Jesus in you.
Be blessed with the fruit of the goodness of God that the Holy Spirit produces in you, your empowered response from his goodness (Galatians 5:22).
By Sylvia Gunter
Used by Permission
Further Reading
• Random Acts of Kindness it is amazing how random acts of kindness affect those around you.
• Extending Grace to Others
• Salvation Explained