Good!

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

ephesians 3:14-19 NLT

I once read an anonymous statement that has stuck with me and went something like this . . . ‘how can we look in awe at the beauty of the flowers and trees and sky but look in the mirror with disgust or criticism? We are ALL His beautiful creation.’

Ladies, we are all His beautiful creation, created in His image, just as it says in Genesis. And our Heavenly Father describes us as ‘good’. Our original design is ‘very good’. When you look at the original Hebrew translation of ‘good’, it actually means so much more than how we use the word today.

‘Good’, as originally used in Hebrew, translates as beautiful, best, better, bountiful, cheerful, at ease, fair, in favor, glad, gracious, joyful, kind, loving, merry, most pleasant, pleasure, precious, prosperous, ready, sweet, wealthy, well-favored, and more!

We realize we are broken and live in a fall world, no longer the Eden God originally created. But the Lord continually draws us near in restoration and love. He calls us ‘good’ because are are ‘good’ in Him! We fall to our knees and pray to God and can approach the throne with confidence because of His goodness, not our own.

Since the creation of Adam and Eve, the Lord has desired to bring us back to Eden. Throughout history, He has been working to restore a lost world and bring us back into an intimate relationship with Him. Jesus changed everything and overcame death to bring us back to life.

For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed

romans 8:20

Through this new life, an never-ending life in Christ, we are given the opportunity to live in the free of His goodness and His calling us good. We are given the opportunity to intimately connect with Him in the Edens of our hearts. If you’d like to explore this more, I encourage you to download John Eldridge’s Pause app and go through the 30 Days of Resilience plan.

For now, let’s celebrate our being called ‘good’ – our bodies, our hearts, our minds, and our souls. Yes, we are sinners but we’re also now saints. Let’s move forward in a posture of humility and confidence. Let’s step into that peace and power. Let’s view each other through this truth as well. Let’s seek Eden and look forward to the Heavenly Eden that awaits. When our eyes are fixed on Jesus, our posture radiates Him and true health follows.

So as you worship and workout, focus on who HE says you are! And HE is desiring for us to get back to ‘good’ – holy, healthy, and whole – and believe that we are ‘good’!

How would your thoughts and choices differ if you continually saw yourself as good and His beautiful creation? How can you pass this goodness and beauty on to another today?