Growing Together – Day 19: Goodness
READ: James 4:7-8 - Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
“Good things as well as bad, you know, are caught by a kind of infection. If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire; if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you: if you are not, you will remain dry. Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever? Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?…Jesus came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life He has – by what I call ‘good infection.’ Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.” (C.S. Lewis from Mere Christianity)
REFLECT: I think that all of us can be tempted to want the goodness of God - without God. We tend to want the Fruit of the Spirit (goodness included) on our own terms and timetables. Jesus, as He says, is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one gets to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). Jesus is the way we see God, He is the embodiment of God’s love that pulls us close, and His are the hands that hold out God’s abundant life. This is why Jesus encourages us to – abide in Him, remain in Him, follow Him, love Him, trust Him.
The goodness of the Father comes to us through the Son by the working of the Spirit. The Spirit is glorifying Christ by leading us, building His goodness in us, helping us experience it, and drawing us toward the Fountain. The more we draw near, the more we will have to share.
PRAY: Not all prayer needs to be done in solitude. Some prayer is best in the kitchen, in the car, or at work. For this prayer: today, tomorrow, this weekend – whenever you can – take some time to be alone. Don’t pray for anything else – “God draw me close.”