Overall Best In Goodness ♡♡♡

 

"But the fruit of Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying one another" - Galatians 5.22 -26

One night during the time I was pregnant. I had woken up to use the rest room, when all of a sudden I saw what appeared to be bleeding. I panicked. Got on the phone to call mum, whilst I was also calling for my husband on the other hand. Right in that moment, I had a "barrage" of thoughts - Was this whole thing about to be a fluke? What we had waited and trusted for, for so long. Was this whole thing about to blow up in my face. All of the hope and expectation that we were now going to become parents dashed? I was so stressed out, so much so that after the calm, I began to throw up.

As my heart raced so fast in that moment and upon discovering it was just false alarm; a few other thoughts followed - "Oluwaseun where is your trust? Why would God bring you so far, only to leave you hanging like that. Why would God not complete what He has started? God is good. And even if it turned out another way round (cause I appreciate that, this could be a miscarriage in another situation) - Painful as it may, may we dare to say that even in this God is still good. Good is God!

There's a portion of scripture I would love to share with you. And it can be found in the gospel of Matthew chapter 19 verse 16-30. A man walks up to Jesus and asks - "Good master, what good thing can I do, so that I may inherit eternal life?" - Jesus responds "Why call me good, there is none good but God" - But if you will enter into eternal life, you must follow the commandments". He goes on to asks further "which ones?" - Jesus lists them for him. This young ruler is certain he obeys all of the commandments until Jesus hits a soft spot of his; you could hear the pin drop. "Give all your riches" - That was all that the rich young ruler had to hear. Oh he was triggered.

Without moving away from topic, really it takes more than just the commandments to examine the motives and intents of each hearts. And there is only one that is very GOOD at strengthening the hearts of his children. So much so that on the surface, we may judge God's actions to be unfair, bad; when in actual fact they are good. God has so much good in Him, that even when we do not understand, His actions can be trusted to be for our overall best. Are we able to give up the idea of what we consider good, and make room for mind blowing overall goodness?

Consider that for you and I to express any kind of "goodness"; that is indeed note worthy to our fellow sojourners - we need God. At best our righteousness as the bible says is likened unto filthy rags. Have you been in a situation before where you really thought a certain action of yours had good intent, but upon reaching the recipient it was met with so much distaste? And that's because not every supposed good thing, may be actually good (hopefully I haven't confused you) - No wonder Matthew 7:11 - reminds us that though we are evil, we recognize the concept of good gifts, how much more God? In our not so perfect state, we recognize good to an extent, how much more God. 

A popular quote by C.S reads - "God is not merely good but goodness; goodness is not merely divine but God"

Beloved, God is good, Good is God. These are not mutually exclusive. It is God who makes us good. It is God who fills us with goodness. Good is what God does. If you cut God open, goodness would spill out of Him. If God is in your life, He has plans of "overall goodness" for you. And if you are feeling that you are  "bad" and do not deserve goodness or that others are not good and so do not deserve goodness. Consider Matthew 5:45, It says that God gives sunlight both to the good and bad - How about that? 

Love

Shay