The Glory of Goodness
““What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
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One Definition of Faith: "Faith is the leaning of your entire personality on God in Christ, in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness.”
There's a lot that can be said about this sentence but I'd like to spend time exploring the thought that according to this definition believing in His goodness is an integral part of our Faith in him.
God's goodness
God's goodness is the fullness of who he is. It depicts the fullness of his nature.
To properly explore this theme, I'll start with an old passage in the Bible that has always intrigued me. The Bible tells the story of Moses who has this amazing relationship with God. He, like no one else around him, talks with God face to face. On one particular instance, God and Moses are alone on a mountain having a wonderful experience
““And Moses said, I beseech You, show me Your glory. And God said, I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim My name, THE Lord, before you; for I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy and loving-kindness on whom I will show mercy and loving-kindness.” ”
Ok, follow me here. Moses said show me your glory and so of course we expect God to say, "Sure, I'll show you my glory." But wait, that's not what he says. Let's read that again, "And God said, I will make all My goodness pass before you..." Um, God, Moses asked for your glory and you're saying you'll show him your goodness, are you mistaken? Could it be that God's glory is God's goodness?
Woah! His glory is the fullness of who he is. It depicts the fullness of his nature. And His goodness IS His glory
Ok, now if you are like me, when you hear the word glory, these are the things that come to mind
Perhaps that's because I have no idea what glory means <insert smirk>. I don't use it in everyday conversations. Thankfully we can turn to the dictionary for more clarity
Glory: Majestic beauty and splendor; resplendence
This suggests that God's majestic beauty and splendour can be seen in his goodness. God's resplendence is seen when we behold his goodness.
God: The Best You Ever Had
To me, goodness is being willing to do what you are able to do. What is God able to do?
““Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]””
God is able to do superabundantly above anything we can think, imagine or ask. And if He is good, then he is willing to do what he is able to do, which means he is willing to do superabundantly above anything we can think, imagine or ask.
Therefore, God’s Goodness is:
- Beautiful and resplendent, like glory
- Greater than anything we can think, imagine or ask.
- Greater than our rational thoughts, imagination and desires
““His goodness is beyond our ability to comprehend, but not our ability to experience. Our hearts will take us where our heads can’t fit.”
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Taste and See
I don't just want to know about His goodness. It does me no good unless I know it experientially. So how can we experience God's goodness?
““Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see— how good God is.
Blessed are you who run to him. Worship God if you want the best; worship opens doors to all his goodness.”
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God's goodness is not just a lofty idea. If you open your eyes, you can see evidence of it all around you. If you open your mouth to taste of it's fruit you will find it to be sweet. You can partake of this sweet goodness today through worship.
Worship is simply this: In view of God’s goodness,
- Engage your Heart (Your desires)
- Engage your Mind (Your rational thoughts and imagination)
Last year I went on an amazing trip to Seoul, South Korea. Sometime around rush hour, we boarded a packed train on our way to dinner. Now, I lived in New York for several years and now live in London so a packed train during rush hour is a piece of cake for me. On this day though, I started having a panic attack on the train and suddenly wanted to get off. Then I began to worship...
Worship: Engaging your Heart
- Acknowledge that God is good and even in the midst of a situation that seems to contradict his goodness, he is unable to be anything else but good.
On that train in Seoul, I decided to engage my heart and said, "Alright heart, you're feeling like you're going to die but God is good so let's focus on that". I kept singing "God you're so good." I no longer felt like jumping out the window but I was still in a panic. Now that my heart was engaged in worship, acknowledging that God was good even on this packed train, I needed to engage my mind too.
I know sometimes there is a tension between what our senses perceive and what we know in our head but remember Bill Johnson's quote: "Our hearts will take us where our head can't fit." It's okay if you're struggling to believe God's goodness. You can tell him that.
Worship: Engaging your mind
- Think about what God being good means in your life.
- Think about the promises he has made to you about the situation you're in.
I began to think that if God was truly good then he would not let me die in this packaged train so I need not be anxious. I reasoned that if God had made promises to me in my life and those promises had not yet happened then it was not yet time for me to die. A good person does not promise you something then lead you somewhere to die so that they don't have to fulfill those promises. If a good person wouldn't do that then certainly My Good God wouldn't do that so I concluded that I was not dying on that train. A Scripture from the Bible in Psalm 118 came to mind: "I will live and not die and will proclaim what God has done."
“When you worship, you see his goodness more clearly. When you see his goodness, it causes you to worship. It’s a beautiful cycle of worship.
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Let's go back to our story of Moses and look at Moses' response to seeing God's goodness. His response was to Worship! When you see God's goodness, the only response is worship. And we read Moses' response in Exodus 34:5-8: "Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, 'The Lord , the Lord , the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.' Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped."
I pray you experience the fullness of God's glory in His goodness today, and everyday of your life!
- You can listen to me talking about this in the link below.
- You can also read more on this topic in Bill Johnson's book titled "God is Good"
