I recently realized I have a warped perception of the word good.  Each night, I think about my day and recollect my eating habits, time spent in prayer, and how much scripture I read.  If I hit some self-created mark, I call it a “good day.”  But I think God is dealing with me on my measuring system and showing me that my idea of good and His idea of good isn’t even in the same stratosphere!

I first realized that if I want to see God’s idea of good, I need to look at His original design for humanity.  We were designed to walk around naked, tend the garden, eat freely, and take a stroll with Him in the cool of the evening.  Our one directive was to avoid the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  It’s easy to understand why God wouldn’t want us to know evil, but why do you think He wouldn’t want us to have knowledge of good?

The first thing I notice by going back to the original design is that none of the measuring devices I use to measure a good and successful day even existed back in the beginning.  There were no Bibles to read, no designated prayers, no churches to attend, no scales to weigh yourself on, and not even a pair of jeans to squeeze into.  And there were no mirrors.  The only faces they saw were God’s and each other.  It reminds me of the saying that JOY is an acronym for Jesus, Others, and You.  That is how they were living.

I don’t know about you, but I am obsessed with grading, comparing, and measuring myself.  I measure how I perform each day, and my scale is skewed!  I judge myself by numbers on a scale, calories consumed, time spent in prayer, how much I pray for others vs. how much I pray for myself, verses read, and any other self-supposed weakness.  Sadly, I talk to lots of outstanding, creative, beautiful individuals who love God but are obsessed with measuring all the things they think aren’t so good about themselves.  That is why God didn’t want us anywhere near that tree.  He didn’t want us to ever come up with our own definition of good.

Want to know what God’s definition of good is?  Jesus.  That’s it.  God thinks Jesus is the bee’s knees.  And He loves us so much that He gave us the good-est thing in the entire universe as a gift, so we can look at Jesus and say, “Wow, Jesus!  You are my perfect sacrifice!  You died for me, and now you live for me!  You know my frailties and love me anyway!”  Do that, and God will say you are having a very good day.

I am so grateful to Jesus.  He broke the scale and the measuring stick.  He burned down that rotten performance-based tree of the knowledge of good and evil after He allowed Himself to be nailed to it.  It’s gone.  Moreover, Jesus is now your mirror!  As you gaze at Him, you become more like Him (2 Cor 3:18).  Here is my challenge, allow Him to determine what is true and good about you.  That’s His job.  Let God be God, and let yourself off

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