Those of us who desire to be “good” people in this life – primarily for the purpose of pleasing God our Maker, struggle immensely against the contrary and adversarial pressures of this world, our flesh (natural man) and the evil one. We cry out to our Deliverer on innumerable occasions, to make us to be whom He intended us to be; essentially, to be like Him in heart and purpose. But each new day we still struggle and oftentimes come up short – failures in our own eyes. We don’t even need for others to tell us we fall short because we are all so acutely aware of it. We then cringe at the thought of coming into His presence even to pray, let alone, to worship Him.

It was during one of such times in my experience, that the Spirit of the Lord reminded me that – what defiles us is what proceeds form the heart (Mark 7:20-23 [20] And then He added, “It is the thought-life that defiles you. [21] For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, [22] adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, eagerness for lustful pleasure, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. [23] All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you and make you unacceptable to God.” (NLT).

Notice one of the characteristics of a good heart – it produces fruit ( Luke 8:15 says “But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.” NIV).

But how does one get a good heart? I know that the new birth makes us new creatures in Christ (John 3:3-16), but this still means that we cannot produce “good” apart from Him. Note what – Galations 3:3 says: “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (KJV). The Complete Jewish Bible puts it even more “stunningly”: – Gal 3:3 “Are you that stupid? Having begun with the Spirit’s power, do you think you can reach the goal under your own power?” (CJB).

When you keep this verse in mind and read John 15, especially verses 1 to 16, it is clear that only what is done by His Spirit in us pleases Him, and will last.

We cannot be ‘good’ or do ‘good’ without (apart from) Him (Jesus the Lord).

May you find the His grace to enable you to draw close to and ‘abide’ in Him.
A victorious life is otherwise, impossible.