Prophet’s Reading Plan: Isaiah 57-59
And the fruit of the Spirit is… goodness…
Exodus 33:19-20 (NIV) And the Lord said, “I will cause all My goodness to pass
in front of you, and I will proclaim My name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom
I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
But,” He said, “you cannot see My face, for no one may see Me and live.”
Yesterday’s devotional spoke of goodness as moral
excellence. As Christians, we are to do the right thing and obedience is the
key to the entrance of heaven.
There are some who would read this and fear that we are
leaning towards works-based salvation, saying that it is our obedience and our
hard work that will get us into heaven, but that is not it at all. None is
worthy to be in the presence of God; our righteous deeds are as filthy rags to Him!
We need His goodness and His grace and His mercy in all things, especially in obedience and moral
excellence. It’s actually very freeing – we can’t be good without Him!
When you gave your life to Christ, His Spirit came alive
in you and you became a new creation. The Holy Spirit empowers you to live a
right and good life, to do good deeds and to love others. God desires us to do great works – to live lives of
surrendered obedience and to do amazing things for Him and His kingdom. But
without His great GRACE we
cannot do great works.
The Lord’s goodness is so great. His words to Moses give
us a glimpse of just how incredible is His nature. We use the phrase “If looks
could kill…” One look at the Lord Almighty would have had Moses keeled right
over, not because God is hideous or glaring, but because of His majesty and
holiness. God is so good that we, in
our humanness, cannot bear it because we are nowhere near as good as He is. But
God is doing a work in you that He will carry out to completion. His goodness
will follow you and His righteousness will cover you until the day you see Him
face to face and fall before Him in awe and worship because He is so good.
PRAYER AND
MEDITATION
1. Is there a part of you that ever questions the goodness
of God? What causes you to question?
2. Ask the Holy Spirit for a revelation of God’s goodness.
Spend some time praying and reading your Bible and wait upon Him.
