Skip to main content

He is Good


              I don’t think you can progress spiritually until you resolve the question of whether God is good.  The goodness of God will make all the difference in your devoted love for God.  What keeps us from believing in the goodness of God?  After all He sent His Only Son to die on a cross to enable humans to become reconciled to Him in spite of our innate sinful condition.  How could He express the extremity of His love more? 
              God created this world with goodness in mind.  Each and every day of creation He looked at what He made and declared it good.  Inherent in all of creation is an unrelenting goodness.  In the most horrid of experiences there is potential to see good, if you learn how to look for it.
              This Sunday our opening prayer went like this:
God the Revealer
God reveals Beauty to us…if we open our eyes to see it.
God reveals Truth to us…if we open our minds to accept it.
God reveals Love to us…if we open our hearts to receive it
God reveals Wonder to us…if we open our arms to embrace it.
May we live each day with open eyes, open minds open hearts, and open arms…always open to a message from God.
              I resonated with this prayer.  God has been good to me.  My life might not appear to be overflowing with goodness.  I have many problems and many struggles.  I live with disappointment, judgment and rejection.  I could list a litany of complaints.  In the midst of them all, I have never forgotten that God is good to me.  I see His goodness in this fallen world.  I notice the monarchs that twitter along my path, if just for seconds.  I take in the brightness of a full moon.  I hold my husband’s hand, or receive a call from my child, and I remember that God has been good to me.  He has been better than I deserve that is for sure.  He is much better to me than I am to Him.
              Psalm 13:6 says: I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.  Why do we struggle to see God’s goodness?  I believe the prayer above reveals the reasons.  If you look for God’s goodness, you will find it.  Catherine of Siena wrote:  I want you to be a lover of all things because everything I made—everything –is good and perfect and worthy of love.  I, supreme Goodness, made them all-all but sin.
              Finding goodness requires faith that God is and that He is good.  After believing in God’s goodness, you will begin to see His good works that He designed you to do.  After carrying our God’s good works, you will begin to feel the goodness of God in your heart.  You will be rewarded by being able to take in God’s goodness especially in harsh circumstances.  The fact that God has never abandoned this ungrateful planet of inhabitants is enough evidence of His goodness, but the reality that He sent His Only Son to recreate the heavens and the earth to its purpose of goodness solidifies any doubt in the goodness of God.  If the God in whom you put your faith is not ultimate Goodness, then you are not putting your faith in the One True God.

Copyright © 2016.  Deborah R. Newman  teatimeforyoursoul.com  All Rights Reserved.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Pilgrimage that Started with Tears

                Who would think I would shed tears deciding to set out on a wonderful journey that I have longed to take for many years?   Before I was ready to fully accept God’s invitation for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, I had to journey to a place of agreement between what my soul wanted and what the Lord wanted for me.   For years I have been declining opportunities to travel to Israel—not because I didn’t want to go but because I wanted to go with my husband by my side.   I know that God could have arranged that for me, but instead He asked me to accept that He wanted me to be willing to go and leave everything behind.   When I was asked to make a decision about going on a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, God gave me this verse in answer to my prayer -- Debi, observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are cr...
2 comments
Read more

Jesus from the Cross

May you experience a holy Holy Week…I participated in daily Holy Week devotions at my church.  You can watch and reflect on the video devotions about Jesus Seven Sayings from the Cross each day at:  http://www.pcbc.org/worship/easter/holy-week-devotionals/ Jesus from the Cross               Jesus’ journey to the cross was extraordinarily short, yet it transformed death from being eternal to only temporary. He literally trampled death by death.   Jesus was arrested around 1:30 a.m.; and by 3:00 p.m. that same day He was dead.  In less than 14 hours He was tried by illegal courts, flogged, walked the 650 yards to Golgotha, the place of the skull, crucified on a cross and died.  Though God asked so much of Him, He would not permit the suffering to last one minute longer than necessary. Jesus hung on the cross from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m.  Those were probably six of the longest hours of ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Bliss of Knowing You are Loved by God

            There is bliss of knowing that you are loved by a real and intimate God.   I have felt that bliss. I don’t experience it all the time and sometimes it takes me a while to notice how much I miss it.   Often I come back to my senses when I read the spiritual writings of one who is explaining how great God is and I am reminded how good He is to me.               I suppose the saints stayed more connected to the bliss of God on a regular basis and missed it far less than me.   I wish I knew their secret; all I can tell you is that it is a cycle for me to find myself unaware of God for a time.   It is often a struggle to reconnect each day. What brought me to my senses recently was a huge blessing He sent my way.   This good thing literally came to me directly from the hand of God.   I didn’t even consider sharing the joy I was ...
Post a Comment
Read more