Nougat 31

A friend of mine always reminds me that there’s no good person save for God, and she is right. Both Luke 18;19 and Mark 10:18 state this explicitly. Yet, as people of Faith, we are called to Goodness. How do we navigate this? Here’s today’s Holy Nougat

“For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.” Ephesians 5:8-9 NLT

“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 NLT

I propose that we are none of us ‘Good’ on our own. For the most part we are self serving, even for the right reasons. Thus we do good deeds, but deeds must be substantiated by our Faith. The two Faith and deeds (works) go hand in hand.

Yet as God’s created beings, we were declared ‘Good’; which is part of our original Godly DNA (Genesis 1:31). As people of Faith seeking to be fully restored to God, allowing God’s Spirit to lead us into Goodness ensures that our motives are not suspect. For when we walk in tandem with God’s Spirit, we can overcome selfish motives (Galatians 5:16).

Goodness takes us then to action that is not only selfless and moral; but more importantly, it places all attention and glory to God. It involves the emptying of our selfish desires to refill our souls with God’s Spirit. Thus when we are tempted to seek adulation for something we’ve done; it’s best to stop there and then to give the temptation over to God. (And of course, that also includes our hurt when what we do goes unrecognized).

Professionally, there is a sense in which we seek to be credited for our work. And to some degree that is needful. But in God’s scheme of things, what the world thinks is secondary to our heart posture. And our acts of kindness and morality is about shining God’s light in grey spaces ; not for professional advancement nor competitive sport. Thus, the biblical adage, ‘don’t let the right hand know what the left is doing’ is apt. We don’t have to have the limelight.

Throughout His physical earthly ministry, Jesus was often caught being good. It often got him in trouble with the religious leaders of His day. I suspect that some felt Jesus showed them up. It may be even more instructive to note that at times, Jesus also instructed those He helped to be silent (they usually disobeyed, but we realize Jesus wasn’t seeking the limelight). It would behoove us to be like minded.

Further we see that some opted to follow just for the ‘fish and bread’ handouts. We learn from them that even with Godly motives, there are those who won’t see God’s hand up in our actions, because they’re too focused on the hand out. And that carries its own share of challenges as it can lead to idolatry and in some instances misplaces our motives. In guarding against these challenges; again we’ll find that it is God’s Spirit Who keeps us from falling.

Despite the reality of ‘the good you do the thanks you get’ (ie expect ingratitude or challenges as a consequence of doing good or helping others); there is a sense of satisfaction in doing God proud. And, as God’s Spirit dwells in us richly, we should desire to be good God’s way more and more. We bless from the bounty of our many blessings. Our actions sped on from the reminder that ‘Goodness [Virtue] is its own reward. Moreover, God is No One’s debtor, not now not ever!

We continue then, to practice God’s goodness every chance we get.

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May all we seek be found in Christ