Today we're going to take a posture of peace by not despising the power of goodness and kindness.
Posture is a short audible fist bump to remind you God is with you
in everything. Together we're going to be emboldened to take a daily posture of perfect peace.
Romans 2-4 says, Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering,
not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? As we talked about in yesterday's
episode, goodness is so powerful. Did you know that it is the primary catalyst for repentance?
Repentance ultimately means to change your mind. God's goodness brings transformation.
In episode 56, we talked about the partnership between other fruit, joy and peace, and goodness
and kindness work in partnership too. The fruit of the spirit often works in partnership together.
In fact, in some translations of Romans 2-4, the word kindness is used instead of goodness.
Goodness and kindness work together in partnership to express God's true nature towards us.
As we continue to be transformed by our encounters with God's goodness and his kindness,
we become ambassadors of his goodness and kindness to everyone that we encounter.
I don't want us to miss the strong warning in Romans 2-4. Don't despise the power of goodness.
Don't despise the power of kindness. Don't belittle them. They lead to transformation.
Accusation doesn't do this. Judgment doesn't do this. Condemnation certainly doesn't do this.
You and I, we are on earth to be good news on display. You are so wonderfully loved by God.
It's like you're a magnet for his goodness and favor. So everywhere you go, people,
they taste and see that God is good through you. Now remember, in the kingdom, the starting point
is always receiving. So before we go out there and be living demonstrations of the goodness of God,
we must taste and see his goodness for ourselves. We must receive his goodness for us in all of its
fullness. Here's what I love about the goodness of God. It's a guarantee. You can always expect
his goodness. You can always look for his goodness in every situation. Psalm 23 6 says,
surely God's goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. Surely, without a doubt,
absolutely, it will follow you, track you down, pursue you all the days of your life, good days
and bad days. There's no escaping it. So instead of trying to reason it away or talk yourself out
of God's goodness towards you, how about just receiving it instead? The fruit of goodness is
about looking after someone's welfare, acting with honor, being favorable towards someone,
blessing them, lifting them up. And that's exactly how God plans to be with you. God's goodness is
our security in the storms of life. When life is unkind, God remains kind. Back to David,
writer of the Psalms, who faced many storms. He faced a lot of disappointments and a lot of
accusations and a lot of unexpected situations. And David wrote in Psalm 27 13, I would have lost
heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord and the land of the living.
And then later, of course, I just love the Psalms. In Psalm 145, he writes, they shall
utter the memory of your great goodness and sing of your righteousness. Another translation reads,
they shall bubble up with the memory of your great goodness. When you feel pressed by
circumstances, when you feel pressured by pain, when you feel trapped by evil, you get to choose
what will you be overwhelmed with? What will you allow to bubble up inside of you
in those moments, in those situations, in those seasons? Will it be the memories
of God's great goodness or will it be fear or worry or past trauma or worst case scenarios?
God's goodness is present in every situation. We need to carry an expectation for it. So we
look for it. Like we talked about yesterday in 2 Corinthians 3 18, when we look at God's
glorious goodness, we are transformed more into the image of Christ.
Even if circumstances don't change, you know that you will. Every situation is an
opportunity to behold the glorious goodness of the Lord and then discover
where we get to be that goodness for others. Romans 12 22 says, do not be
overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good. Goodness is powerful. It
doesn't make us tame. It makes us transformers. Don't belittle it. Don't set
it aside. Don't think it's unnecessary. Don't make it secondary. Let's be
overwhelmed by the goodness of God towards us so that we can be a strong
force for goodness in this world. The promise of perfect peace is found in
Isaiah 26 3. In Hebrew, it is shalom shalom, meaning complete wholeness,
nothing missing, nothing broken. This is who you are in Jesus because of Jesus.
You are a living testimony of Jesus's ultimate win. With every step you take
today, you're putting Jesus's victory on display and Satan's defeat on replay.