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Day 19

 Goodness

What Is Goodness?

God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.

1 John 1:5–6 NIV

What is good?

Who decided?

How do you define goodness in your life? Goodness can be a hard term to understand because what’s good for one person might not be good for another. That’s why a lot of people have decided that goodness is subjective, different for everyone, and everyone can make up their own mind about what is good for them. But when that’s your way of figuring out what goodness is, your goodness can quickly become someone else’s sadness. When what’s good for you hurts someone else, then defining goodness based on your own opinion becomes dangerous. True goodness isn’t subjective but definable. That’s because it’s been defined by goodness himself—God.

When and only when you want what God wants do you find goodness. All other attempts at defining what is good for you are going to fail because they carry with them your doubt about God’s own goodness and his right to define it for your life. When you argue with God over what’s good, or when you think something that he has defined as evil is good, then you are faced with a spiritual rebellion against the Holy Spirit, and you end up in the dark. In this darkness you hide and you cower in shame, like Adam and Eve after the bite of the apple. You feel empty and alone, dark and dirty.

But goodness doesn’t live in darkness; it lives in the light. And in the light there is freedom, peace, and strength. In the light your life feels right, clean, safe, and good. In any understanding of what goodness is you have to know that goodness is defined by what God deems good. And you can know what God considers good by looking at his Word. In the Bible he has written all that he deemed necessary to teach you what is good to him. All the commands of Scripture are a definition of goodness for the life of the God Girl. Goodness is seen in a love of those commands—not a fear of punishment but a love for whatever he loves. This is the essence of goodness: loving what God loves. That’s why Ephesians 5:10 tells us to “find out what pleases the Lord” (NIV), not in order to be saved, because only your faith in Jesus can do that, but in order to discover true goodness. After all, how can you please someone if you don’t know what’s good to them? The healthy desire to please another comes from your love for them, not your fear of losing them. So goodness comes from your love for God, not your fear of losing your salvation. Goodness isn’t about being good to gain God’s love but being good because God is good and his Spirit teaches you goodness.

Goodness lives in the light because that’s where God is. As you bring your life into the light, you not only get a better look at the areas where you have rejected goodness, but you also find the opportunity to get rid of the darkness that plagues you. The light of God not only exposes sin but cleanses it. It does that by giving you the opportunity to spot it. Sin is at the root of all of your struggles, so turning the lights on so you can see the sin that’s underneath the pain gives you the chance to get rid of the sin by confession. Coming into the light offers you the chance to be free from the stuff that plagues you and to choose goodness. You cannot live in darkness and have fellowship with God. You have to let him expose your life to the light, and then you will find all the goodness you are lacking.

  • Confess It

First John 1:10 says, “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” That’s because we all sin, every single one of us. Darkness comes when you say you have no sin in your life. But living in the light brings out all the sin in order to get rid of it. Where is there darkness in your life, some area that you don’t want exposed to the light? Do you think the darkness hides you from God? Not so (see Ps. 139:11–12). Today, turn on the lights. If you are not sure how, here are some ideas.

Pray—Give God access to your life. Ask him to shine the light of Jesus on all of it and show you the areas of sin that you have been hiding.

Avoid the darkness—If there are people in your life who like to live in darkness and keep things shrouded in secret, turn on the lights, find the door, and get out. Don’t let darkness become too comfortable for you, but expose it all to the light.

Confess—One of the best ways to turn on the light is to talk about your sin by confessing it to another person. When you confess, sin scampers off like cockroaches running from the light being turned on in a dark room. Don’t be afraid to expose your sin. It might feel like it’s killing you, but all it’s killing is the cockroaches of darkness.

  • Pray It

Dear God, Please shine the light on all of my life. Don’t let me live in darkness anymore. I want to be free from the stuff that I have hidden. I don’t want to be controlled by sin any longer. Show me where I am living in the dark, and help me to live in your beautiful light. Amen.