God is Good
When I was growing up, our church had those little spiral-bound "Dove" songbooks alongside our hymnals. We mostly used them on the occasion that we had a Sunday evening service. But there were a few choruses we sang on Sunday mornings also, and also during Sunday School. Those were "new" songs then, simple little praise choruses that spoke the obvious truth and rooted it down in our souls. One of those songs was simply called, "God is So Good." It went like this:
I see posts on Facebook and elsewhere, usually in response to favorable outcomes to prayer requests, saying, basically, "God came through, so God is good." And I always want to respond (but I don't...see, I do have some self-restraint!), "Would God still be good if you didn't get the answer you wanted?"
Is our concept and understanding of God rooted in whether or not God answers our prayers the way we want? For some folks, that's true. Some of the arguments of the "new atheists" are along those lines. Something like this: since God could do something, if God doesn't do it, then God is not good. (That's an argument that falls apart when you toss in the importance of free will as a gift from God.) Or is God good nonetheless because he's always working to bring good out of the situations we mess up? Romans 8:28 doesn't mean that everything that happens to us is good, but that God will work it for good, bring good out of it. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe at some point in the future. God is good even when we don't get what we want.
God is so goodYeah, deep theological truths, right? But truth, nonetheless. And we sang that song regardless of what was happening in our lives. Because no matter what our circumstances, God is still good. And God still brings good out of even the difficult and broken places in our lives.
God is so good
God is so good
He's so good to me!
I see posts on Facebook and elsewhere, usually in response to favorable outcomes to prayer requests, saying, basically, "God came through, so God is good." And I always want to respond (but I don't...see, I do have some self-restraint!), "Would God still be good if you didn't get the answer you wanted?"
Is our concept and understanding of God rooted in whether or not God answers our prayers the way we want? For some folks, that's true. Some of the arguments of the "new atheists" are along those lines. Something like this: since God could do something, if God doesn't do it, then God is not good. (That's an argument that falls apart when you toss in the importance of free will as a gift from God.) Or is God good nonetheless because he's always working to bring good out of the situations we mess up? Romans 8:28 doesn't mean that everything that happens to us is good, but that God will work it for good, bring good out of it. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, maybe at some point in the future. God is good even when we don't get what we want.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,neither are your ways my ways,”declares the Lord.As the heavens are higher than the earth,so are my ways higher than your waysand my thoughts than your thoughts.(Isaiah 55:8-9)
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