Do not look for evil. Look for God's goodness all around you. As you look for signs of His Presence, many more opportunities will occur for you to bless people and share God's true nature -— Graham Cooke
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God’s goodness conveys His generosity. His goodness means far more than His generosity, but it certainly includes His infinitely generous attitude toward us. By nature, He longs to bring joy and blessing to all His creatures.
When you hear the expression "God is good", what does it really mean to you? Probably, you believe God is generally good but you don’t clearly see His goodness in your life. If God is good, why are things not working in my life? Till sin entered the world, humans knew only one thing - God's goodness. Everything God made was good and we could see it in His creation and our fellow humans. But when the corruption of sin entered, we could no longer see goodness in ourselves, others, the world around us or God Himself. So, we humans now tend to look out for and expect evil more than goodness.
Many believe God is good but we don’t believe we have what it takes to merit His goodness. This is where we err because God's goodness is not merited. What did we do to merit Jesus dying for us? What did we do to merit the Holy Spirit? On the basis of these two gifts He has given of Himself - His Son and His Spirit - He assures us that all other things that we require or ask according to his will will be done. As Paul puts it: "If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us?" (Romans 8:32, MSG).
Goodness is the very nature of God - His goodness and mercies have been existing and will continue to exist throughout eternity. As James 1:17 says, “Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow” (NLT). That is to say, anything that has the tiniest quality of goodness must have been inspired by, enabled by, resourced by, made possible by the abundant goodness that exists in God. No goodness can exist outside of Him. The Hebrew word towb from which we translate "good" is associated with words like pleasant, pleasure, precious, prosperity, ready, sweet, wealth, welfare, favored, and the list goes on and on. The sum total of all these aspects of goodness is found in God.
We have all had glimpses or tastes of goodness through certain experiences with people who in some ways become symbols of goodness to us. For instance, someone providing money or resources in a moment of dire need, helping you without expecting anything in return, putting in a good word for you, extending friendship and companionship in spite of your weaknesses. When we think of goodness, these individuals come to mind because we tasted a certain kind of goodness through them. But no level of human goodness compares to God's. As Jesus told the rich man in Mark 10:18, “Only God is truly good." He exceeds any kind of goodness we can ever experience from man. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus illustrates how God's standard of goodness defies anything we humans exhibit or expect.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."
Matthew 5:43-45 Human as we are, we often expect goodness on account of a virtue we have exhibited before, a service rendered, a group we associate with or belong to, or a good deed done in the past. Even in our walk with God, we sometimes expect some blessings in response to an act we have done - call it a heavenly reward or blessing - even though we know God's dimension of goodness and ours are worlds apart. In our hearts, we may consider the blessings others have received and feel that we have been unfairly treated.
Like the servants in the parable of the vineyard workers (Matthew 20:1-16), we may say in our hearts: "Ah God! Haven't I served you better or longer than so-and-so who has got so-and-so gift that I am still missing?" We may feel more entitled for certain gifts of God but the truth is God's goodness cannot be merited so we cannot demand it. Yet, at the same time, we know that God is too good to withhold good things from us. He is able to exceed our wildest expectation of goodness because He knows our deepest needs (Ephesians 3:20, Matthew 6:32). We must learn to trust God to give us nothing short of His best.
One account in the Bible that stands out to me on the subject of goodness is recorded in 2 Samuel 9. When God finally gave David access to the throne of Israel, he asked if there was anyone in Saul's family that he could show kindness, favour and goodness for Jonathan's sake. Jonathan was a friend who had extended sacrificial love and friendship in David's difficult moments and this man after God's own heart could not forget. Even after Jonathan had died, this king of Israel could not rest until he expressed his gratitude. If David, a fallen human with an imperfect record, could remember and return an act of kindness, how much more would our heavenly Father?
If there is one truth about God we should never forget, it is the fact that He is not unrighteous to forget any good work we render especially in His service (1 Corinthians 15:51). When Abraham attempted to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, God gave back his son and added a ram. Centuries later, He gave up His only Son to be sacrificed for Abraham, his descendants and all humanity. When Abraham returned from rescuing Lot and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, he was met by Melchizedek, the king of Salem and priest of God. God took the initiative to minister bread and wine to refresh Abraham and pronounce blessings on Him. Beloved, God never forgets and He will always outdo us in goodness.
In 2 Kings 4, we read the account of a wealthy woman who showed kindness to Prophet Elisha. She willingly offered him food and even built him a small rest room. Moved by this woman's generosity, Elisha asked what he could do in appreciation of the great hospitality she had shown. This woman said she had no need but Gehazi, the prophet's servant, noticed that she didn't have a son and her husband was old. When Elisha prophesied that she would hold her baby within a year, she cried: "Don't deceive me and get my hopes up" (verse 16). Maybe, like the woman of Shunem, you've ruled out a deep desire or relegated it to the bottom of your needs list because you don't want to be disappointed eventually. It could be the possibility of having children, reaching a certain career goal, enjoying a blessed marriage, gaining admission or residency, getting a good job or acquiring a certain property. But I want you to know that your Father in Heaven knows this need and He is more than able and willing to provide it.
Once, a prayer partner called that he will visit me at home and would want some biscuits and a malt drink. For someone working at a mine site then, telling him that I couldn’t provide these would not only have been embarrassing but it could be mistaken as stinginess. But in that period, I didn’t even have money to buy food because I had used all I had to print books. As the day drew closer, I felt some pressure to find other options but I had made a covenant with God that I will not borrow money. I've always wanted to experience God as my provider so I decided to wait for His provision.
That fateful morning, I was up early pacing my bedroom in prayer, in need of a breakthrough to save me from shame. Suddenly, I heard my phone beep - there was a mobile money alert from someone I hadn't spoken to for over six months. So, I wondered if the person has sent it mistakenly and called to verify. The sender's passport processing request had failed and when the fee was returned, God asked her to send it to me. Amazing! That was God’s goodness. In this season, be ready and prepared to experience the timely and mind-blowing goodness of your Heavenly Father.
As Joyce Meyer rightly said, "We can’t buy, earn or deserve God's goodness. His gifts – forgiveness, mercy, grace, favor, salvation – are free. And we could never do enough to earn them or deserve them." God paid the ultimate price of Jesus so that He could with Him freely give us all things. We do not need to work to merit this gift. We only need to trust His goodness and rest in the eternal truth that He knows our needs and is committed to providing them at just the right time.
Are you a child of God? Does He love you? If earthly parents know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more God, your heavenly Father? As Psalm 84:11 says, 'the Lord bestows [present] grace and favor and [future] glory (honor, splendor, and heavenly bliss)! No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly' (AMPC). Does your need or desire fall under the category of good things? Yes! Then, I believe that your heavenly Father delights to give you this good gift too. Do you believe it?
Scripture Reading:
Matthew 6:25-34 & 7:9-11, Psalm 34:8, 107:8-9 & 145:5-9