What I want versus God is good

Enchanting, is it not?

   

  As I sit in the living room staring at the twinkling, multi-colored lights on the Christmas tree with a crackling fire in the fireplace on this rainy evening in Kansas City, I can't help but thank the Lord that I'm home for Christmas this year. Well, sort of. I still have to work, but I am home for right now. God has truly been so good to me.

     There are times in our lives when we feel like we can't say that God is good. Whether it's just in a brief time of your life where you are feeling blue, (mood swings!), or when tragedy truly strikes, and you are left in the lurch. We all go through both of these times to be certain. Some last longer than others, and some are deeper than  words can express. We find ourselves asking, "How in the world can I truthfully and sincerely say that God is good?" I have had those thoughts myself, even asking myself that same question as joy and enthusiasm spilled from peers that stood up to testify in our student service at Bible school. 

     They say that google can define anything, so typed "define good" into the search box. Two main definition popped up, one being "morally excellent, right, or proper," and "satisfactory in quality, quantity, and degree."

     When we think of good, we tend to think that good means "how we want it," but that is not the true definition. When we say that God is good, we are saying that He is morally right, (He created morals after all), right ("Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Gen 18:25), and proper, (appropriate.) More than that, and more down to where we need it, He is satisfactory. He is everything we need, ("My grace is sufficient for thee..." 2 Cor 12:9)

     What we think is good is not always good, but God is good, so He knows what is good; He knows what is best. So the next time you catch yourself asking "how can God be good," remember that God IS good, even though He doesn't seem to be doing what we think is good. You know what He says in Isaiah 55:8-9, "My ways are not your's!"(Paraphrase) God is good all the times, and all the time, God is good.

     "Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart." Psalm 72:1