God Is Good!

One of our family's favorite cliche's is, "God is good all the time and all the time, God is good!"

This last Sunday in worship, we focused on  the Goodness of God.  Often, living in a broken world - with other broken people, it can be difficult to remember that God is good all the time.  Sometimes the brokenness of life causes us to see the bad more easily than the good.  Sometimes the brokenness of people causes us to focus on the depravity of men more than the grace of God  Sometimes we get caught up in thinking all the unfairness is more an offense to our righteousness than to God's.

Point:  In the end, it's all about God's goodness, His grace, and His righteousness.

In the third chapter of 1 Kings, God reminds us that He draws near, not because we are good, but because He is.  He doesn't wait for every idol to be destroyed.  He doesn't wait for our good work to be completed - He draws near, because it is what He wants.  The incarnation is the ultimate picture of that truth.  God came at just the right time and He still does today.  God seems to be more concerned with our response to His showing up, than our perfect preparation for it.

The next thing we notice is how gracious God is.  God doesn't stop at just showing up, He goes way above and beyond.  For Solomon, He offered an incredible gift - but...
He didn't stop with the fulfillment of that gift, He gave Solomon everything else he hadn't asked for as well.  Likewise, Jesus didn't just come to Earth to reveal the Father.  He came and did the unthinkable.  He gave up everything for all of us.  He made a way to fix what was broken between us and Him.  He gave us life and every other promise as well.  God is so good and so gracious.

And to top it all off, it's not because we earn it - ever.  He doesn't do things for those who will be good enough or for those who are righteous.  He blesses the saints and the sinners alike.  He uses the mature and the immature.  He works through and with the selfish and the selfless.  The common factor in all of His purposes and alliances is His righteousness, not ours.  God can and does use anyone, because HE is righteous and can do whatever He wants.  Often we make someone we find one fault with to be all-together despicable.  On the other side, we often idolize or saint someone we find ourselves in alignment with.

Our methods and standards are biased, subjective and faulty.  God's aren't because it's all on Him.

I challenge you to look back on the best and worst milestones in your life and search for the ways that God demonstrated His goodness, graciousness, and righteousness.  It would do our hearts good to remember and be filled with gratitude!

With you for His glory,