Goodness

     I've been studying the fruit of the Spirit for a class I teach.  Due to various circumstances, the lesson on goodness has been delayed for about a month.  It has given me quite a bit of time to ponder this fruit.  As I have looked at scriptural passages that refer to goodness, one thing has stood out.  As the opening line of the song Forever Reign states, "You are good, You are good, when there's nothing good in me..."; goodness is not found in people; only God is good.  Ps. 53:1-3 puts it this way,
      "The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God,' they are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustices; there is no one who does good.  God has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there is anyone who understands, who seeks after God.  Every one of them has turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one."
     I see the evidence of this in my own life so often.  Although I would never say, "There is no God," I recognize there are days when I live like it.  I'm cruising along in my own strength, doing my own thing, as though I need no help from God.  In reality, I desperately need Him to intervene in my life, to impart His goodness through His Spirit.  Otherwise I become self-centered in what I do and say, practicing corruption and injustice.  By nature, I am a sinner. 
     Thankfully, God is not like me.  He is all good.  Ps. 25:8 says, "Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He instructs sinners in the way." And in Ps. 130:3,4 we read, "If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared."  God knows my shortcomings, He sees my brokenness, and He offers grace and forgiveness to me as a free gift.  He lifts me out of the pit of despair; He calls me out of darkness into His glorious light.
     So the hope for goodness comes not from within myself.  I have no standing on my own.  But because of God's good work in me, He now invites me to walk by His Spirit and follow His example; to be an imitator of Him and walk as a child of light. 
     "for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth)" Eph. 5:8,9.  As I seek to understand Him, His goodness will fill me and flow through me.  Any goodness that others see in me is merely a reflection of God; His Spirit living in me, flowing through me.
     I want that fruit to be produced in my life.  I want to leave behind the path of foolishness and walk in the light, enjoying fellowship with God, the author of goodness and righteousness and truth.