My team is going through the fruit of the spirit and today Cami led our lesson on kindness and goodness. And wow, was it amazing…and so convicting!
First of all, GOODNESS, God is good! And the only reason we even have the chance to be good is because of Him and His goodness. Goodness only comes from the Father and in order to even begin to step into goodness, we have to understand the goodness of God.
Goodness can be defined as : a bountiful propensity both to will and to do what is good. It produces generosity and a God-like state of being.
Goodness ONLY comes from God.
Ephesians 5:8-10 ‘for you were once darkness but now you are light in the Lord. Love as children of light (for the fruit of light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.’
Goodness is not only a fruit of the Spirit but also of LIGHT. And God calls us to be the light of the world…in order to walk in this light, this goodness, we must walk so close behind Jesus that we are covered in His goodness, His character and we must learn what pleases Him (vs. 10).
And then, KINDNESS. I BELIEVE THE father has given me the gift of kindness…but just like everyone, I fail, a lot.
Kindness is an expression NOT dependent on what is being done to us. SHOOT, I don’t know about you but THAT IS TOUGH TO SWALLOW! Jesus’ kindness wasn’t dependent on anything we did…if it was, we’d all be donezo…but through His kindness, He showed us mercy. WHAT A GIFT!
I began to think of all my relationships on and off the race…the kindness I’ve shown and then the times I’ve failed. Honestly, a lot of the times I’ve failed, I may not have shown outwardly that I wasn’t being kind, it has been inward thoughts that plague my mind and cause me to look at that person differently. But then sometimes my failure in being kind manifests itself in a way that is very visible and evident.
I fail to show kindness, I fail to give mercy and I therefore fail to walk in goodness.
You see, they’re all connected. The FRUIT of the Spirit (notice singular) is all connected. Although we only studied 2 of them today, each and every part of the fruit is connected and we each possess all of them…it’s just a matter of if we’re living in the fruit or not. I want to live in the gift of kindness the Lord has given me but I can’t fully do that unless I walk in goodness…or gentleness…or peace…or joy, etcetera.
Sometimes we have to do a heart check…today I did.
I want my heart to align with the Fathers so I can reflect His goodness and kindness so that I follow so close to Him that my actions reflect all He does and is.
