Sprout: 21 Days for the Fruit of the Spirit to Bloom in Your Lifeಮಾದರಿ

I Love You ... Be Good!

By Casey Hale

Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. —Ephesians 5:1 NLT

I recently had to have one of those “hard conversations” with my five-year-old. (Parents, you know exactly what I’m talking about!) I don’t have any experience with parenting older kids, but I’d be willing to bet that discipline never gets easier. This particular conversation was about making better choices—choosing respect and obedience rather than consequences. Later on, in that very same day, the Lord kindly sent me a corrective conversation through a fellow coworker, and I was gently reminded of the importance of my responsibility, both as a Christ-following mom and as a child of God. I had to ask myself, Am I a living example of respect and obedience? Am I modeling the fruit of the Spirit for my children and others?

Often, when we drop our kids off at school or leave them with a babysitter, my husband and I speak these parting words: “I love you … be good!” While my hope is that my kids have seen goodness modeled in us and will choose to act “good,” it’s about so much more than behavior. The subtle implication of that short phrase is “remember our relationship—who you are—and act accordingly.” As Christians, goodness is a posture of our heart, formed through our loving relationship with our heavenly Father. And out of that intimate relationship, our actions naturally overflow.

To develop an understanding of goodness as a fruit of the Spirit, we can first endeavor to define “goodness. The way the world defines goodness often fails to measure up to God’s standard, so how do we know what is truly “good”? The Bible shows us the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22–23, and just a few verses earlier, Paul reminds the church that “the flesh desires what is against the Spirit” (Galatians 5:17 CSB). We must decide for ourselves if we are going to side with the world and our sinful human nature in what we think is good or with what the Spirit says is good.

This is quite often one of the biggest obstacles for anyone trying to understand the character of God. The all-too-common question is, “If God is so good, why does He allow [fill in the blank]?” I’ve personally been there myself many times! It’s happened most often for me in worship services when we’re singing about God’s goodness. I can’t help but think, "Things really don’t feel good right now." But we need to get to a place in our faith where our trust in God’s goodness is stronger than our feelings or opinions of what should be good. God alone defines true goodness because God is good. When you start feeling that maybe your circumstances aren’t so good, I encourage you to sing out in faith about God’s goodness. You might not fully understand it in the moment, but we have the assurance of His Word to know that He is always good. He can’t help it—that is just who He is.

If one of our foundational beliefs as Christians is that the Bible is truth, then we cannot ignore the evidence of God’s good character written there. A simple Bible word search will list so many verses describing God’s goodness. And because the Bible declares that God is good, we can then understand how we are to be good. We have a blueprint for what it looks like to display true, authentic goodness to others. What a gift!

Accepting salvation through Christ means we enter into a relationship with Him. Because God made Himself available to us through His Word and through prayer and conversation, we have immediate access to Him and His character. The more we get to know Him, the more we want to be like Him. Our made-new purpose becomes growing more and more into the image of Jesus with each passing day. And the evidence of our changed character is becoming a reflection of Jesus, which includes being a representation of the goodness of God here on earth to every person we interact with in our daily lives.

What a loving Father we have! He who is good in the purest, most true sense of the word wants to be in intimate relationship with us! He exemplifies goodness for us in every way and walks with us hand in hand as we learn to choose goodness in our everyday lives. “Acting good” is about pleasing others, but “being good” is about pleasing God. In addition, being good is accepting the truth of God’s goodness and, because of our closeness with Him, reflecting that goodness to the world around us. Be encouraged today that God says to you, “Remember our relationship. Remember, you are My child. Show My character to others. I love you … be good.”

Prayer

Dear God, thank You for loving me and wanting a relationship with me. Thank You for the transformative work of the Holy Spirit in my life. Thank You for walking hand in hand with me as I learn to navigate what it means to follow You, to be a reflection of You, and to become more and more like You. Help me to always remember that You are good and to choose goodness. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

For Further Reflection

1. Remember times in your life when the Lord has clearly revealed His goodness to you. How do those moments encourage you today?
2. If our actions were solely in response to what other people wanted from us or how they acted toward us, the world would be pure chaos! Think of a time when you reacted to a person or situation rather than choosing goodness. Talk with the Lord about it.
3. Receive God’s grace today over previous times in your life when you moved without dependence on Him. Renew in your heart and mind a conscious effort to pursue and include Him in everything you do.