God is Good

God is good…a common phrase, but one with immense depth. “Good,” like many words, has many meanings, but in all of them is a sense of something that is inherently positive. We want things to be good; we want good things for those we love. But what does it mean for God to be good?

“Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever!” (Psalm 107:1, NKJV).

In other words, God IS good–and that word for good means “pleasant, excellent, valuable in estimation, right.” When God tells us that He is good, He is not just telling us that He happens to have this characteristic. He is telling us that He is the source of good, excellent, valuable things; we can see this from the way He created the world–

“And God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good…” (Genesis 1:31, NKJV)

to the way He cares for those who believe in Him–

“For You, LORD, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You” (Psalm 86:5, NKJV)

to the works He sent His Son Jesus to perform–

“Many good works I have shown you from My Father…” (John 10:32, NKJV). 

God’s goodness, or His perfect plan, His presence as the source of every right and positive thing, is in His every action. From the beginning of time, God has been good, and He will always be good. He shows His goodness to those who call upon Him, to those who see His actions and plan as valuable and worthy of being listened to. 

So…what does it mean for us that God is good? We live in a society which often tells us that God must not be good because He doesn’t do X, Y, or Z; He must not be good because this event happened in the world, or this sad thing happened in this person’s life, or He allowed His Son to die on the cross. 

But God has told us that He is good, that His actions are good, and His plan is good and right. God allowed His Son, the Lord Jesus, to be crucified; while that seems cruel, that was one point in the story, and God raised His Son, and through that sacrifice, we have a hope of eternal life in the Kingdom. Without the moment that may have seemed incomprehensible to Jesus’ disciples, the ultimate good in God’s plan could never have been accomplished. 

What if, when something happens in our life, or we read a passage in the Bible that we don’t understand, or world events move us in scary ways, we take a step back and ask how God might be working for good in our lives? What if we look back and see the thousands of ways that He has worked for good for us, and for others? 

Perhaps if we assume we will see only bad, we will be limited to the moment that seems incomprehensible…but if we assume that He is right and He is good, we can step beyond that moment and see the bigger picture. I think that if we look for good in our Creator, we will never stop finding it.