Kari Jobe wrote and delivered a song entitled "You Are Good" on Gateway's Wake Up album. No, this isn't the Israel Houghton down tempo remix by Ms. Jobe either... (nobody get any ideas either, lol... it's time for NEW songs) This song is either a simple chorus for you to sing, or as it was for me... a revelation and an experience. The first verse says…
Your kindness leads me to repentance
Your goodness draws me to your side
Your mercy calls me to be like you
Your favor is my delight
About the same time I heard it (about 1.5 yrs ago), I was also being exposed to some thought provoking teaching as well. It was the perfect marriage or even collision in some cases. Collision only because it began to really challenge a lot of my thoughts of what and how i perceived God at it's core.
In the amplified bable, uh I mean Bible… it says: “4Or are you [so blind as to] trifle with and presume upon and despise and underestimate the wealth of His kindness and forbearance and long-suffering patience? Are you unmindful or actually ignorant [of the fact] that God's kindness is intended to lead you to repent ([a]to change your mind and inner man to accept God's will)?” ROM. 2:4
In the NKJV, it replaces kindness with goodness and I can’t figure out which one is better cause I like both of them! But my thoughts get taken to the fact that simply put, it’s His kindness/goodness that initiates change in our thinking.
We’ve been thinking wrong. The western church’s thoughts toward repentance have always been initiated out of fear, shame and condemnation and yet the word says that none of this exists when we’re in Christ.
I come across so many people who have been shown and taught a very distorted, incomplete version of who God is. Our understanding of what God is like is one of the most important anchors to our relationship with Him. If we don’t believe in the entirety of His character, how will we know how He feels about us in regards to who we are and what out future looks like? And beyond that, what if we just really don’t know who He is?
Kari continues to sing in the bridge of her song:
Your kindness is forever
Your goodness is forever
Your mercy is forever, forever
I want to show others the kindness and goodness of God that lasts forever. Not Judgment. There’s no life in judgment. God is kind, gentle, full of joy and laughter, peace, rest and compassion. If we don’t KNOW this though, how can we walk in it? And better yet, how can we give it away? Our generation is tired of people telling them things. We’re over solicited, over marketed, over sold and completely under delivered. We want to see Him. It’s a show me generation. Unless someone is introduced to God thru what they see, I don’t believe they will respond. You are what they see.
So my final thought is this… What are we showing people? There are people that need the love of God to complete them and as Kari Jobe has reminded us thru the scriptures given by Paul, it’s the kindness of God that will lead them to the place of repentance, to think differently. We are the channel, the video, the movie, the song of kindness that will inspire them to want to know him and believe that their lives can be different. Let’s show them who HE is. Take a risk. Ask God to lead you to those that are ready to be shown and then offer yourself completely. See what He will do thru you.
