Good or God?

I’d lie if I said I didn’t want to quit writing this blog. I avoid looking at the stats as numbers plummet. Every time I try to back off this thing, God gives me more to write and here I am typing away. That’s the bulk of this post. Doing what God said beyond our desire. Why am I doing this? What’s the point? What will be the result? Or my personal favorite, “What about what I want to do?”

God created us with a purpose in mind for each of us which is to glorify him (Isaiah 43:7) through our gifts, talents, and abilities. During our lifetime we begin on this long journey to find our purpose and how to express it. We go church to church, religion to non-religion, theory, hobby, and things that validate what we want to hear in hopes of confirming why God placed us here. I’m that kind of person, not the “jumping between churches” person but the validating of what I want to hear from the person. Most people struggle with finding their purpose while others struggle with accepting theirs. I’m more of the latter. These past couple of months, I’ve been grieving about just that, accepting my call and moving into it. So, here, I want to share with you what I’ve learned and prayerfully, it’ll help you.

Ah, ha moment!

Up until this week, literally, I’ve been living my life, saved and unsaved under the unction that being good is good enough. It is good, but it’s not what I should strive to be. I grew up in a southern Baptist church and I noticed that in church, not just mine, people think good equals saved or purpose not realizing that even evil has a purpose. Seeing past the regal, beautiful 3 piece suits on Sunday morning imprinted in my mind what a saved person looks like. Watching those in the church get up and speak eloquently when their name on the program is called, made an impression on how I believed saved folk should speak and behave. I didn’t realize until high school that behavior isn’t a lifestyle, it’s a response to being in a particular environment. Walk with me for a second, I’m not trying to bash church folk here just hang tight!

In short, how we define good, isn’t always God-given. What we deem as good is relative to what we’re dealing with at the moment. For example, cheering at a football game is good or appropriate behavior, while in class is not. We do the same thing with God. This week, it hit me, that while I was focusing on being “good”, I was working against it. I’m abstinent from sex and smoking, I pray (not like I should, working on it!), I study my bible, I try to treat people right, etc. That’s good and all, but if I’m not moving toward my purpose, It’s working against God’s will and that’s essentially evil.

Our Goal

The passage that comes to mind is the parable of the fig tree in Mark 11. Jesus and his disciples were traveling and along the way, Jesus sees a fig tree. He’s hungry so, naturally, he goes to see if has any figs. The Bible mentions the tree being full of leaves, which is a sign that fruit should be there or at least still growing, but Jesus finds none. He curses the fig tree to never produce fruit again. When they see the tree again on their way back, it’s now withered and dead. Jesus goes on to explain to them and us, how our faith moves mountains and can bring forth those things we desire. After all of that good words there, what I got was, being productive and giving what God expects is the point of my life.

Moving in our purpose is the goal and if we don’t do that, eventually, we’ll be given over to our desires like Romans 1:28: “ Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done.” Just like the fig tree, God will allow us to be consumed in a state of being unproductive, producing nothing, and being useless. He doesn’t fight us to carry out his will when we become aware of it; that’s our responsibility.

Work, Work, Work

What I hope you take from this, is learning that being good is good, but good doesn’t replace action, work, and effort on our part. Being good without work means nothing. James 2: 13-26 speaks on this, especially verses 17 and 20: 17 “So too, faith if it does not have works [to back it up], is by itself dead [inoperative and ineffective].” AMP. 20 “But are you willing to recognize, you foolish [spiritually shallow] person, that faith without [good] works is useless?” Having faith in God is great, essential, and required in our walk; so is our work, not as proof of our goodness but as proof of our faith. Our faith is deemed dead without works that prove its existence. Playing safe as Christians isn’t a reality for us. We’ve been called to dream big, hope big, love well, and get hard things done for The glory of God. Yes, God gets glory from your art, your character, your business, your clothing line you’ve been afraid to start, and that book in your head you’ve put off for years. God gets glory from our passions if we are his. Get to it and stay the course, be encouraged! Christ wouldn’t have been Christ had he not done the work only he could do. His parables and miracles would’ve been in vain had he not died and risen for us. Let’s get to work!

Romans 1:28 ESV – And since they did not see fit to – Bible Gateway July 6, 2021

Amplified Bible (AMP)

Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631. All rights reserved. Retrieved from James 2 AMP – The Sin of Partiality – My fellow – Bible Gateway on July 6, 2021.