ARE YOU “GOOD” ENOUGH?

When we first start out, getting to know God and learning His ways, we need Him to spell things out for us and show us each step. It takes time and consistency for us to learn and grow, and to change from being reactive to responsive.

The same is true when we work with an untrained horse. It takes time and consistency for them to figure out what we want from them. They need us to guide them and show them every step of the way.

God doesn’t leave us to figure things out ourselves any more than we would leave a horse in the round pen and expect them to figure it out. But the teaching and learning is not about performing or trying to be “good enough” or “better” than somebody else.

It’s about the process of actually working together that real relationships are built, between us and our horse, and us and God.

Often, we think life is all about trying to be a good person. We can even think that’s all God wants too, is for us to be a good person.

The problem with this though is everyone has their own idea of what “good” means. We can do many “good” things for the wrong reasons, which then taints it. We might be trying to earn God’s favor, impress other people, feel good about ourselves, make another person feel like they owe us, etc. So as ‘good’ as we might look to other people, our wrong motives leave us wanting because it’s displeasing to God.

God didn’t create us to just be ‘good’ people who do ‘good’ things. Just like we don’t want our horses to just be programmed like robots to do good things, God wants our behavior to be good fruit that stems from our relationship with Him because He loves us. And because we love Him, we desire to please and obey Him, not because we have to, but because we want to.

It’s a heart change that, in turn, changes our motives and behavior.

“Not because of who I am
But because of what you’ve done
Not because of what I’ve done
But because of who you are”

Casting Crowns – Who Am I (Official Lyric Video)

Colossians 1:9b-10

We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.