“For the Lord God is a sun and shleld: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Psalm 84:11
In this day when there are wars and rumors of wars, and nation rises against nation, there is a truth that transcends all that we see, hear, and think, concerning “the world” and what is occuring in it. It is the blessed truth that God is good, and one way that He reveals Himself as good, is to reveal it in “good things.” He is the giver of every good and perfect gift. Concerning the revelation that He gave of Himself to Moses, He declared: “I will make all my goodness pass before thee…” (Ex. 33:19) David, in writing of his very real experience of the goodness of God, spoke in very tangible terms by simply saying: “O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.” (Ps. 34:8) He goes on to say, “O fear the Lord, ye His saints: for there is no want to them that fear Him.” (v.9) Why is the consideration of the goodness of God so very important to the believer today, and how can he know the reality of such goodness?
The importance of God’s goodness lies in its worth. That worthiness stems from, and has its origin, in Christ Himself, for as we see in Scripture, during His ministry, He went about doing good. We see from the beginning of creation that every word of God was good, for all that He created by His word was good. Of course, the greatest testimony to the Divine goodness of God is in the giving of Christ, to die on the cross, to save our souls. Every manifestation of the goodness of God towards men is subservient to that revealed, not only in the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ, but also by His indwelling the believer by the Spirit at the moment of the new birth. From that moment, the believer has the very goodness of God IN him by the Spirit, a goodness which overcomes all that is not good, all that is evil, all that is not of God. The manifestation of God’s goodness will triumph in the church in our day, if we have a vision for it, and are actively seeking God to accomplish it in us. But how is this knowledge of God’s goodness to take such a dominant place in our thinking and lives, ministry, and realized purpose? It begins with a vision, or revelation, of the truth of God, according to His word(s), then believing Him to do it.
With regard to the vision, we must see that there is only one true source of Goodness, and that is found in a holy God. Why is this so important to grasp? It is because God is holy, and as such, everything that He is and does is holy. The subject of “goodness,” Divine goodness, is no exception. It is in realizing this, that we can then seek His goodness from heaven, from the Father, for the glory of the Son, by the Spirit. It is then, after we see the only fountain for goodness, and choose to seek it there, that we need to hear Christ’s voice, according to His words. “How much more shall your Father which is in heaven give that which is GOOD to those who ask Him?” (Matt. 7:11) It is in seeing, believing, and laying hold upon God by faith, that His goodness becomes our own, communicated to us by the Spirit, so that His love is revealed to others. It is in our capacity to receive of Him His goodness, that we are enabled to give it to others, that they too may truly “taste and see that the Lord is good.” God’s call to every believer is to know this goodness, receive deliberately from God His goodness by the Spirit, and live to communicate that goodness those around us, that they will also taste and see Christ.
Dear Father, Give us Thy goodness. In Jesus’ name, Amen.