Goodness and Faith

2 Chronicles 30:18-20
18 Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, "May the LORD, who is good, pardon everyone 19 who sets his heart on seeking God—the LORD, the God of his fathers—even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary." 20 And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people.

I find in this passage a picture of real faith. Hezekiah instantly knew where his hope lay; it did not come from the purity of the people, or their ceremonies and traditions. His hope was simply in the goodness of God. Much of our appeals are typically based in something other than His goodness. We put our faith in our ability to believe something enough, or in our diligence to confess just the right things. However, our confidence only needs to be in knowing that He is good. Faith is simply an understanding and trust in the nature of God. Faith builds and grows as we allow God to reveal His nature to us; therefore, it can not be manufactured or drummed up by our own efforts to create it.

Faith is a natural response to our life being invaded by His goodness. I love how A.W. Tozer speaks of His goodness in the Knowledge of the Holy! Here he states “The goodness of God is that which disposes Him to be kind, cordial, benevolent, and full of good will toward men. He is tender hearted and quick of sympathy, and His unfailing attitude towards all mortal beings is open, frank, and friendly. By His nature He is inclined to bestow blessedness and He takes holy pleasure in the happiness of His people.” If we allow God to make the truth of His goodness deeply real in our life, we will find that faith has been born! We can now face the hardships of our life walking in the confidence that our heavenly Father is good and knowing that he will carry us through anything we face. Deeper trust emerges as His goodness entices us to open our lives to all of His attributes.

God is revealing Himself to His people! He is opening the door to a richness of life that only true faith can bring. He is replacing our faith in our beliefs, our formulas, and our confessions with a faith grounded in the unchanging beauty of Him. God is not who we have feared Him to be and He is far beyond everything we have dared to hope that He was. When we allow Him to invade our lives in truth we will taste of His goodness, everything else will start to seem empty as we remain simply hungry for more of Him...

Psalm 34:8
8 Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.

Vines and Fruit

John 15:5-6
5"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.

I have spent so much of my Christian life in a vain attempt at being ‘fruitful’. I would read verses of this nature and run off to prove to God and myself that I was a good and fruitful branch! I would bring Him my polished pieces of man made fruit and present them as proof of my own worthiness. However, beneath the surface I always knew that my peace was only plastic and my joy artificial. The truth is that Jesus was never asking me to go and through my own human efforts produce fruit. He spoke clearly in this passage that apart from him I can do nothing [verse 5]. My human attempts to produce fruit will only bring a life of pretending. Christ is calling us to a much different life in this story of vines and fruit…

I think the timing of this story tells us a great deal about its meaning. This parable comes right in the middle of John 14 through 16. This is a powerful portion of scripture in which Jesus begins unfolding for his disciples what the plan of redemption will truly mean; he is describing for them the profound difference in the way they will live. However, as you read this section of scripture you begin to see that the only thing the disciples were hearing was that Christ was leaving. They were already beginning to grieve the approaching loss of this man who had so changed their lives. I find it ironic that Christ uses this moment, in the middle of their grief to tell them that they must remain in him to be fruitful. I can only imagine how confused the disciples were at this apparent contradiction! Yet, as Jesus continues to speak his excitement seems to be building. Several times Jesus addresses his disciple’s sadness with the exclamation that the counselor is coming. Jesus knew of how the disciple’s lives would be changed by this gift of the Holy Spirit that awaited them! He knew that the intimacy they had felt with him while he walked on earth was only a glimpse of the closeness and friendship the Holy Spirit would bring. It is in this place of intimate communion through the Holy Spirit that Jesus describes this picture of a fruitful vine. He uses this not as a command to go and be fruitful, but rather as a warning to remain in the vine of the flowing Holy Spirit, because apart from this connection into the power of the living God we can do nothing.

The amazing part of these beautiful passages is what they mean for us. Jesus is speaking to us just as much as he was to the disciples. He is opening for us a path to a deeper understanding than our human mind could ever comprehend. He is offering to us access to a new way of living apart from our human strivings. He is telling us of the emptiness our vain attempts to produce fruit brings and asking us to stop pretending. He is calling us to allow the working of the Holy Spirit to replace our man-made fruits with the real and lasting fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is in this place of remaining in the vine of deep communion with God that the powerful sap of the Holy Spirit will produce the fruit that comes from a life lived in the intimate care of God…

Galatians 5:22-23
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.