Am I A Good Person? Are You?

Do you try to be a good person?

I do.

When I became a new believer about 6 years ago, I was all about being "good." I didn't cuss or talk back to my parents, I went to church on Sundays and served in the children's ministry. I was a good person; it was a known fact. 

But there was something terribly wrong with that. 

Sure, I was good and I even tried to share the word of God to people and lead them to Christ, but my relationship with Jesus was stale. 

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).

I was trying so hard to be good that I forgot to even sit at the feet of Jesus! The works we do are nothing in comparison to the light of the Most High. The hundreds of things we do can't save us, but the one thing Christ did. 

The Lord was completely reminding me of all this last week when my dog died. My heart was broken, when I found the dog that I grew up with for 11 years, limp with no life. I had to completely rely on The Lord and trust in Him ad hold on to the comfort that only He can give. 

I was reading in Isaiah while this entire event was taking place, and if you've ever read Isaiah, you know that it's not the most uplifting book in the bible. But The Lord was using it to humble me and remind me that I'm not the "good person" that I've made myself out to be. 

I mess up. 

I'm a sinner, just like the people in Isaiah. 

The only difference between me and those people is that I have been saved by The Lord Jesus Christ! Amen for that!

So, stop and ask yourself:

Am I a good person?

Because, while in the word, we will begin to realize that we are not. We will be humbled before The Lord, and when that happens, when we realize that we need Jesus like crazy, we will strive, not only to be more like him, but to have a relationship with him. 

Don't try so hard to be good so that the world can see, but love The Lord and soon enough, your good deeds will humbly flow from your life, like a stream trying desperately to reach the sea. (That totally might not make any sense to you. But it did to me). 

"Let the one who boasts boast in The Lord," (2 Corinthians 10:17).

Love,

Bailey Gundry | High School Intern