Thursday, May 23, 2019
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Galatians 5:22-23
We are
looking at the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit, those qualities and
characteristics which develop in people who have genuinely surrendered to following
Christ. Today’s focus is on the fruit of
goodness.
Rats,
according to a NY Times article[2]
are taking over New York City. One
resident was quoted:
“I’m a former Marine so I’m not going to
be squeamish, but this is bad,” said Pablo Herrera, a 58-year-old mechanic who
has counted up to 30 rats while walking on his block in Prospect Heights, just
around the corner from the stately Brooklyn Museum.[3]
How do
rats play a part in describing goodness?
It’s not a secret that they are nocturnal, living in darkness and with
garbage. They can be aggressive and pose
a health threat to humans. But, because
all of God’s creation is good, which applies even to rats, there is a purpose
to their existence, albeit the exact nature of that purpose escapes me. When I get to heaven I’ll include that in the
questions I ask.
Sometimes you
start with the opposite of what you want to talk about; it helps provide contrast. For instance, light is brighter when you
describe darkness. To describe goodness
we begin with rats, one of the more despicable creatures on planet earth. By comparison, goodness is a characteristic
of the light and lives above the garbage level of anything.
The
popular saying is: God is good; the
rejoinder is: All the time! What we mean is God, because of the goodness
of His character, everything He does, says, or thinks, has goodness as its’ foundation
and purpose. There is nothing God does
which is not “good”.
At this
statement unbelief pushes back: Wait…what? What about the children that died in the mudslides
in India…what about murder in the US?
Are those good? Such
is the nature of unbelief, but faith answers:
What about the cross? God,
who is good (all the time, and in everything) knew man would do things like
murder, and that existence with free will would create all kinds of collateral
damage to even a perfect creation; humans make choices, and with choice comes
pain. God’s good design is to wipe away
all tears; his way is to end sorrow, death, and all evil. That is the nature of light chasing darkness from
the room. That is goodness! That’s why the cross was necessary.
Our task
as cooperating beings in God’s kingdom is to not only mirror that goodness by
doing good things, it is to accept what the Spirit of God is trying to
accomplish in us, changing our character from rat-like, living in
darkness and feeding on garbage, to Christ-like, living in light, and feasting
on His word.
Evangelist
Vance Havner used to say about the dark things in our souls that, like so many
other dark dwellers, when you lay them on the altar of God’s light, the creepy-crawly
things of darkness must scatter.
For You Today
Let the goodness of Christ dwell in you today; open the door on God’s
light for your soul, and let it chase away the rats of darkness.
Scripture finishes our devotional thought of producing Kingdom fruit:
The seeds of good deeds become a tree of life; Proverbs 11:30a
If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. Romans 12:8
You chew on
that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.
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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from The New Living Translation©
