The Goodness and Kindness of God

            "But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

(Titus 3:4-7 ESV)

It is unexpected and unforeseen. Sometimes it can catch you off guard and surprise you. It is not predictable and it never disappoints. The goodness and loving kindness of our Savior is overwhelming! Have you experienced it?

It is so easy to get caught up in the monotony of the mundane and ordinary life. We go through the motions everyday. We hit snooze until we have to get out of bed, shower, eat and start our day. Sometimes it feels like we are robots doing the same thing everyday and we miss out on amazing things God has in store for us! But it doesn’t have to be that way!

When we start our day looking at the goodness and kindness of our God and realize that everything we do can reflect Him, it gives us purpose and hope for each day. When we surrender our lives to Him and become a Christ follower, we are given the Holy Spirit (which we are studying about this weekend) and stand in newness of life before God.

It is as a child of God that He delights to give us good things and do great things through us! I have been so excited to see what God is doing through our students lately! They are overwhelming with their courageous faith and desire to please Jesus! I love hearing someone describe them as “Jesus freaks who aren’t afraid to live out their faith, because of them I know I can live out my faith too!”

Sometimes it is seen just through being friendly and building relationships with other teens. Others it is inviting a friend to come to youth group to hear the Gospel! One young gal decided last week at Dare2Share that she wants to follow Christ and surrendered her life to Him. Last week a young man talked with me and chose to follow Christ after youth group! God is so good! God is so kind! It is overwhelming what God is doing and I am so excited to see what He continues to do!

I want to close with a challenge to just do the small things and see how the goodness and kindness of God shows up in a powerful way, by sharing a quote from “Kisses from Katie:”

“The truth is, I am not really very brave; I am not really very strong; and I am not doing anything spectacular. I am simply doing what God has called me to do as a person who follows Him. He said to feed His sheep and He said to care for “the least of these,” so that’s what I’m doing, with the help of a lot of people who make it possible and in the
company of those who make my life worth living.”