Readings:
Deuteronomy 4: 1-2, 6-9;
Psalm 15;
James 1: 17-end;
Mark 7: 1-8, 14; 15: 21-23

Collect:
Almighty God,
you search us and know us:
may we rely on you in strength
and rest in you in weakness,
now and in all our days;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Reflection - God is Good

A song has been on perpetual replay on my music playlist in recent month. The song is titled goodness of God by Jenn Johnson, it is a song that has kept me thinking about the goodness of God regardless of what I may be going through. Have you ever wondered why several verses of the bible refers to God as good? but what does that really mean? How do we reconcile a good God with all the sufferings and hardship in the world? 

Jesus declared, “No one is good—except God alone” (Luke 18:19). First John 1:5 tells us that “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.” To say that God is good means that God always acts in accordance to what is right, true, and good. Goodness is part of God’s nature, and He cannot contradict His nature. Holiness and righteousness are part of God’s nature; He cannot do anything that is unholy or unrighteous. God is the standard of all that is good. 

I’ll like to share few things with us about the goodness of God and how they should help us to have the right perspective of God.

1. Natural blessings

This is the lowest level at which He expresses His goodness and the one we tend to overlook or take for granted. But David saw it clearly. He was moved by God to write Psalm 145 a hymn of praise that celebrates God's goodness expressed in the created order.

In verse 9, he shouts out, "The Lord is good to everyone . . . "

Every relationship, every job, every tree, every taste of food that pleases us, every birdsong, every friend, and flower are a reminder of His compassion for us. When we look in every corner of this world and every part of our live and we will find the overflow of his generosity, if we will only begin to look for it.

1. Kind interventions

Psalm 107 is totally devoted to this theme, and opens with joy: "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His faithful love endures forever. God comes to the rescue of people who are frantically searching for something or someone that will satisfy their soul. When they cry out to the Lord, He will deliver them, and their soul will find its true home.

God rescues those pounded by calamity. When the storms threaten to sink us and we're at our wit's end, we can call to him and see him command the storms to be still, because He is good. He's been there for you, more than you'll ever know. No matter what situation you are facing at the moment, God is the best Person to call upon, there is no surer source of deliverance or blessing than him, because He is good all the time.

1. Assurance of Salvation

 Colossians 1 reminds us that Jesus "is the image of the invisible God" (v. 15) and that "God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him" (v. 19). Jesus is God's goodness in the flesh. He demonstrated God's desire to pour out blessing and deliverance on us by taking the judgment that our sins deserved upon himself. His death for us is the undisputed picture of unmerited goodness. You don't deserve it. I don't deserve it. In fact, we continue to do things that prove we didn't earn it. But God is good. His nature drives a desire to do for us what we can't do for ourselves. So He puts forward His Son on our behalf to take our sins and give us heaven.

There is only one who is fully and truly good—God. This good God invites us to seek Him and to “taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him” (Psalm 34:8).

Adedayo Adebiyi