As we have examined the Fruit of the Spirit, each has embraced a part of God’s character and reinforced the proposition that as we become a child of God, He will transform us with loving leadership. Salvation’s three components are justification, sanctification, and glorification. Sanctification is the ongoing process of the Holy Spirit transforming us into a reflection of God. This week as we look at Goodness, we need to embrace how it underlies the selfless and humble nature created within us.
As God’s chosen, David (the man after God’s own heart) told us that God our Shepherd will lead us, protect us, and provide for our every need. Psalm 23. The last promise in that psalm says, “Surely Goodness and Mercy will follow us all the days of our lives and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Goodness is a defining characteristic of God Himself and also for anyone who would come after God. Jesus told us that a tree is identified by the fruit it produces. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told the crowd that you will know a tree by its fruit, Good trees cannot produce bad fruit, nor can bad trees produce Good fruit. Matt 7:16-20.
In our lives, the same holds true. We should desire to be and do good things not to gain salvation, but, as a product of our salvation. That is why we feel so awful when we try to break away from God. It simply is counter to what we are becoming. We find that we now desire to do good. It is as natural as breathing. That fruit flows from us and blesses all that we encounter. So as we look at God’s goodness this week, cling to the fact that this goodness is not only what we do, it is who we are!
God Bless You
Galatians 6:10
Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
Ephesians 5:8-9
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth)
Romans 15:14
14 I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another.
Romans 12:21
21 Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:2
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.
Mark 10:18
18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.
Walking With God 