Goodness Pt. 1
Goodness Pt. 1Genesis 1:1-25, Psalm 119:66-68, Judges 2:11-14, Mark 10:18, Psalm 34:8
Good is not enough to describe who God is. Yet, the very word of God uses it to describe who God is and from his Spirit comes goodness. This attribute of God is essential to know in understanding the weight of the Gospel. Today we read a variety of verses that describe God as good. “You are good” (Psalm 119), “no one is good but God” (Mark 10), “God created everything and called it good” (Genesis 1), yet there was a passage that seemingly is out of place. Judges reveals the height of which God’s goodness stands. Sin entered the world because we rejected God’s goodness. We said, “it wasn’t good enough” and broke the world, letting evil reign and bringing about a nature of walking away from God. Judges is a rough book to read, but an epitome of the unfaithfulness of God’s people and the allure of evil. Judges 2 says, “they abandoned the Lord the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt.” We forget. We abandon the Lord. We say, “your goodness is not enough, so I will worship baal.”
But, because of Jesus, we may enter into his good, good presence. The Gospel is a full display of God’s goodness. The cross where it seemed evil won, death reigned and hell was victorious God was and is good. The thing is that even though we cannot understand his goodness in our lives, especially during times of suffering, he is and we lean into the Spirit to help us believe that. Fruit is not us being good, but allowing God’s goodness in and through our lives. From the highest mountain or the deepest pit, God’s goodness is real and true. That is why when we walk away like faithless Israel in Judges his wrath comes. He knows that his goodness is enough, that it brings a deep satisfaction to our souls and stirs in us a joyful worship.
Let us not be people who forget God is good in the midst of broken hearts and tribulations. Let us remember what Jesus has said to us, “take heart, for I have overcome the world” and been given the Helper. We do not produce goodness on our own, nor can we muster up the strength to believe he is good. The Spirit helps us to believe that, to see it and to trust in that God is who he says he is - good.
Let us pray for eyes to see, hearts to believe, and faith to trust that God is good - always.
