Fruit of the spirit - Goodness

Imagine a time when something really good happened to you.  Something that made you so happy.  Maybe you passed that exam you worked really hard for, or you made a sports team at school.  Now, imagine a time something bad happened to you.  Maybe you got some bad news in your family, or you were going through a hard time.  Now I want you to think, ‘Who did I turn to when something good happened?’ and ‘Who did I turn to when something bad happened?’
 
For me, I turned to God.  When something good happened, I thought how privileged I was for God to grace me with his kindness and goodness.  However, when something bad happened, the question that came into my head was ‘Why is this happening to me?
 
God’s goodness is a funny thing.  Whenever something good happens we think, ‘How good is our God?’.  If someone gets into their dream university, we think how good our God is for giving that person the chance to further themselves and to live their dream.  God’s goodness is not just a personality trait. It is who He is.  He gave his only Son to save us from our sins.  I think that is amazing.  God’s goodness provides us with so much and we have so much to be grateful for, in that respect.
 
However, we don’t tend to think like that when something goes wrong.  We sometimes ask ‘why’ or ‘how’ could our God, who is so good, allow something like this to happen?  There may be feelings of frustration or anger, but Romans 12:21 says ‘Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.’  In tough times, we should spread God’s goodness among people, rather than sharing negative feelings.  In one of the worship songs shared this week, ‘I Choose To Worship’, the chorus explains how we will praise God through the fire, the storm and the flood, and how nothing could ever ‘steal my song’.  It’s important to keep our faith in God through the tough times, and ask for His guidance through such times.  In return, He will share His goodness with us.
 
Nahum 1:7 says, ‘The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble.  He cares for those who trust in him’.  When something goes wrong in our lives, we must trust that God will grace us with His goodness and support us through that difficult time.  We must look towards God and His goodness, rather than turning away from Him.
 
God always has a plan, as it says in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  Things might not follow the plans we have, but everything that happens in our life will be part of God’s plan.  It is part of our job to spread God’s goodness throughout our lives.  A small act of kindness can really make someone’s day.  Why don’t you try to carry out one act of kindness this week, and share His goodness with someone else?
 

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