It’s Good News!

“The same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.”

Colossians 1:6

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This verse I “came across” last year when I was reading my daily bible plan. I think I’ve read it before, I’ve read Colossians many times before. But something about that moment jumped out at me when I read this verse, and every time since.

Here, Paul is informing the Colossians of the global impact of the Good News. He is reporting to this church in this city the impact the Good News is having all over the world. He describes it as bearing fruit by changing lives, just as it has changed the lives of those in that church. I believe Paul shares this to encourage them about the picture they are a part of in faithfully sharing in the good news of Jesus. 

How big is your picture of the Good News? Because I used to think I was the only one fighting to tell people of who God was, of what Jesus did for them. I thought I was fighting a great big world with my little tiny self. But this verse and this picture of God started reframing things as God started showing me what HE was doing, not what I thought I was to do out of my own strength. Our God is a big God and His ways will prevail. The Good News will go out all over the world, not by our might but by His. Before the time of phones, internet or social media, the Good News went out, not just in Jerusalem, or Israel, or the Mediterranean area, but all over the world. Why? Because it was God who spread it, not man made methods. And it is bearing fruit not because we are changing lives, but because God’s grace changes lives. 

We are not making up something that we must convince others of, nor must we work out of our own strength to convert others. No, that is God’s job. His grace changes everything, His marvelous, wonderful grace. All that we must do is tell others of the Good News. And what is the Good News that so many Christians talk about, the one with the capital letters? Its the news about God’s wonderful grace, his unfailing love, the pools of mercy he has for us, all made available through the death of His son Jesus. Yes, something of that magnitude doesn’t need to be convinced. Honestly, it really just needs to be shown, that there is wonderful grace for us all! 

So let us remove any self made burden of what we think we need to do to share about God and let us step into the mighty rushing river that is already flowing around the world as hearts awaken to the grace made available to them. No, we do not need to anything other than live in the flow, sharing to others what we ourselves have experienced, knowing that we are a part of this great big picture of God’s grace. Yes, there is grace for everyone and how beautiful is it that we can take part in sharing that too!