on 7 September 2022
Dear all at IPC,
‘For you Lord, are good’ – Psalm 86:5
As I reflect on the last few weeks and months of church life, I’m filled with a sense of the goodness of God.
The summer is often a strange time in church with people going and coming, activities stopping but other activities beginning. It has been so encouraging to have lots of newcomers to the church, the summer camp to Swansea for our young people went well, and Holiday Bible Club was a huge encouragement. It was a joy to see so many children, new leaders joining, and so many from the congregation serving. There have been Baptisms and Professions of Faith from our children. God has been good to us. There are times we can sense it, even taste it. But the truth is, God is always good.
The goodness of God not only fills our hearts with joy, but it also becomes an issue for us in our Christian lives. At some point, you and I will be faced with the questions in our experience – is God truly good? Can I trust his character? Will he keep his promises?
Our thoughts immediately think of suffering or when we are faced with troubles and sorrows. How can a good God allow these circumstances in my life? You don’t have to live long in this world to see we will all face suffering. Some of you reading this will have gone through enormous difficulties and the temptation is not normally to doubt God’s existence, but to fear that he is not good.
Joseph knew what it was to suffer, often unjustly, but he is able to say at the end of Genesis: God meant it for good (Genesis 50:20). It may be unfathomable for you at this time, but with the eyes of faith, we are called to look to God’s goodness.
We can be particularly tempted to doubt God’s goodness in the area of disappointment: being let down by others; life not being what we hoped and envisaged it being; people – even the Lord’s people – letting us down. All can bring crushing disappointment. Our experience, or our emotions might be screaming at us how can God be good and allow this? Often we need our brothers and sisters to take our eyes off ourselves and fix them on God’s word and purposes, to remind ourselves there is a day coming when there will be no more disappointment. Sin will be removed and God’s goodness will be clearly seen.
The same question rears its head when we are fighting temptation and sin. The path of obedience can be painful. Decisions we are faced with and the easier way, and maybe even the way we would like, is away from God’s word. The choice of faith is to believe that God’s ways are the best ways, his paths the right paths. That to resist temptation is not only right, but it is good. The temptation is to believe that by taking things into our own hands and going our own way we will experience blessing and happiness.
In the garden of Eden Adam and Eve faced this very temptation. The Serpent comes to them and implies God’s commands are too narrow, he misstates God’s word and Eve does not correct him. He lies to them about the implications of their disobedience and then he states that by following God’s law they are missing out. Can you see his tactic he is implying: God is not good. In fact he is saying God is withholding good from you, do not trust him, do not believe him.
This temptation is played out day after day in our lives. To disregard God’s word and think we know better, that we are somehow better than God. At some point you will face it, there will be decisions that you will have to make, some may even define the rest of your life. Don’t believe the devil’s lie. The doctrine of the goodness of God is right at the heart of living as a Christian.
God’s goodness effects his every attribute – His holiness is a good holiness, his justice is a good justice, his truth is good, he is infinitely good. God’s goodness is seen ultimately in the giving of his Son. God is so good to us that he gave his one and only Son for us. It is beyond our comprehension that he would love us so much that he would be willing for his only begotten Son to become sin for us. Jesus received God’s wrath that we might receive the Father’s love. How good is the God we adore.
Our prayer every Lord’s day must be with the Psalmist: ‘You are good and do good; teach me your statues’ (Psalm 119:68), As we come to the Lord’s Table ‘we taste and see that the Lord is good’ (Psalm 34:8)
I’m told that often in African American churches in the US, the pastor will say “God is good…” and the congregation will respond “ALL the time!” And then he’ll say “And ALL the time….” To which the congregation replies “GOD IS GOOD!!!”
It would be a great tradition to start in IPC.
‘Oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good’ – Psalm 106:1,
Your minister and friend,
Paul