Sowing the Seeds of Goodness

      If we are going to bear God-glorifying goodness (Galatians 5:22), we need to make sure we are sowing the seeds of goodness.

      In Mark 7:18-23, Jesus explained we do not have to guard against what goes into our stomachs to be good.  Instead we have to guard against what goes into our hearts.  As the proverbialist said, our hearts produce the springs of life (Proverbs 4:23).

      We need to be on guard against having our hearts filled with immoral and sinful ideas.  If we feed our hearts and minds on sinful things, we will not be devoted to goodness.

      Instead, we need to feed our hearts what is good and right.  We need to feed our hearts on God’s word (Proverbs 4:21).

      According to Isaiah 55:8-9, God’s thoughts and ways are above ours.  We need to examine the scriptures from the standpoint of learning how God thinks and views things.

      This is not to say that we are only allowed to read our Bibles 24 hours a day and are never allowed to watch TV or listen to the radio.  But when we do those things, we must make sure that what we are allowing into our hearts is consistent with what is righteous and good according to God.

      God-glorifying goodness was not just about our own lives, but also helping others be devoted to goodness as well.

      If we are going to help others be devoted to goodness, we need to begin by sowing the seed of good example.  We will never teach anyone to make the hard choice of doing what is right over what feels good if they do not see us pursuing that course.  We need to be like Paul in I Corinthians 11:1, able to tell people they can imitate us as we imitate Christ.

      Additionally, we need to sow the seed of admonishing those who are sinning.  As Paul said in Galatians 6:1, we need to do so with gentleness and looking to ourselves to make sure we are not sinning in our attitude or approach.  But, we need to step up to the plate and be willing to lovingly help people overcome their sins.

      But more importantly, we need to sow the seed of actually rejoicing in the truth (I Corinthians 13:6).  We should not wait until we see others doing something wrong to jump on them.  Instead, when we see them doing right, we need to rejoice with them.  We need to congratulate them and commend them for their faithfulness to God.  If we did more of this, we would have to do less admonishing.

      We do not need to be overwhelmed when we think about bearing God-glorifying goodness.  Instead, we simply need to sow the seeds that will bear goodness in our lives.  How many of these seeds will you sow this week?

Edwin L. Crozier