Isn’t it nice to experience something good and wonderful in life? Perhaps we might desire good food, a great holiday or a superb career. In everything that we do, we want good stuff. We are willing to pay for good services or products as consumers, aren't we? In order to enjoy life, most people seek material wealth.
Let us consider something better than earthly things: the goodness of God. If we want to know who God really is, we have to begin with His goodness.
Scripture turns our attention to God’s goodness:
"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good" (1 Chronicles 16:34).
"Taste and see that the Lord is good!" (Psalm 34:8)
"Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him and praise His name! For the Lord is good and His love is eternal, and His faithfulness endures to all generations" (Psalm 100:4-5).
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change (James 1:17).
The Lord’s will is for us to enjoy a deep and personal connection with Him. He wants us to taste and realise how good He is, to know Him completely and deeply. As a young believer, I did not quite understand this truth. God seemed to be far away. I did not have an intimate relationship with Him. I was more of a religious church-goer, a pew warmer, than a prayerful Christian. I was afraid of commitments and therefore, I was not willing to serve Him. Deep in me, I felt an emptiness. Whenever I had conversations with my close Christian friend about God and she shared how she tasted His goodness, I could not understand, simply because I did not experience Jesus up close. Then, one day, I decided to seriously study His word and attend prayer meetings. Gradually, God gently led me to areas in which I could serve Him. My life changed.
In adversity, too, I tasted God’s goodness in my life. My younger brother went home to be with the Lord at the age of 34. God used that situation to bring my parents to salvation. In the midst of sorrow and unanswered questions, all I know is that God is good and that all things work together for good, for all whom he has chosen and who have placed their trust in Him (Romans 8:28).
The goodness of God is evident in the gospel of Jesus Christ, where the gospel in itself is the “good news” (Isaiah 40:9, 41:27, 52:7, 61:6; Luke 1:19, 2:10; Acts 8:12, 13:32; Hebrews 4:2,6). Because of God's mercy, our sins can be forgiven and we are now seen as righteous in Jesus Christ. It is only when we appreciate God’s goodness that we can understand how God’s wrath is good, how His holiness is good, how His righteousness is good, and how God is good in His entirety. God is good all the time and He withholds nothing good from us.
God knows that I am a worrier and so I try to adopt a strategy of turning my worries into prayers. In corporate prayers, I am able to pray for the church and for others. May the Lord bless our prayer ministry and increase our prayerfulness in Hermon.
Let us taste and see that the Lord is good!
“He is my everything, He is my all
He is my everything
Both great and small
He gave His life for me
Made everything new
He is my everything
Now how about you
Like honey in the rock
Sweet honey in the rock
For he tastes like honey in the rock
Oh taste and see that the Lord is good
For He tastes like honey in the rock.”
References
https://bible.org/seriespage/3-goodness-god - Deaconess Malar Thomas
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