What I want to talk about tonight and what I have been thinking a lot about lately is "being good". God has blessed me with an amazing Sunday School class. I have made some everlasting friendships this past year and am so thankful that God placed each person in my life. If you are reading this, thank you for encouraging me, caring for me, and building me to become more like Christ each day. We meet every Thursday night for Bible study. Currently, we are reading "The Good and Beautiful God" by James Bryant Smith. His entire book compares false narratives that we have about God to the true narratives that Jesus has about God. I am being completely honest when I say that this book gave me an entire different look on Jesus and who God is. Ultimately, we grow to know and love God through his word, but this book really helped me with misconceptions (false narratives) that I had and helped me fall in love with the God that Jesus knows. In one of the chapters, James Bryant Smith hit on the topic of how we live in a "performance based world". The false narrative in this particular chapter was about how, as humans, we are accustomed to viewing life this way and that if we do "good" we get rewarded. If we make good grades, we get rewarded. If we clean our room, we get rewarded. If we perform well at work, we get a promotion. Jesus' narrative was that we do not have to work hard or do "good" with God. We have to accept his free gift of salvation. The reward we get is to know God deeper and form an intimate relationship with him. Now that's a good reward.
I am also currently reading a book titled, "Anything" by Jennie Allen. It is my first time reading one of her books and I can already tell that I am going to enjoy her. The entire book is about how we place everything above God. I haven't really gotten too far into the book, but she is talking about how she and her husband were tired of "going through the motions" and so they told God they would do anything to serve him. Hince, how the title of the book came to be. She also hit on the "performance based" society we live in. As I was reading, I kept thinking about how we think we are "good". We try to be "good". We go to church, we make good grades, we say thank you, yes ma'am, and no sir, we pray before we eat and before we go to sleep. All these things that we think make us "good". It dawned on me that really, I am not "good" at all. None of us are. We are actually born with evil hearts. What makes us "good" is Jesus Christ. I think of the song Forever Reign by Hillsong UNITED. The beginning of the song goes like this:
You are good, You are good, when there's nothing good in me.
Jesus makes us good. We do nothing good on our on. I am so thankful that I have a Savior that makes me good. Apart from him I can do nothing-John 15:5.
My prayer this week for each of you is that you feel loved by Jesus. I also pray that you put on the full armor of God this week to fight off satan's schemes.
Stay Salty,
Annie
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