Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.

Psalm 136:1

Let’s explore God’s goodness today. The psalmist penned for he (God) is good (Psalm 136:1). Grammatically speaking the word “is” signifies that God and good are the same in the previous sentence. If I said, “Bill is my dad,” Bill and my dad are the same. We can’t separate the two.

Likewise, God cannot be separated from his goodness. It is his nature, who he is. I may choose good or evil, but God will always be good.

Not only is God good, he also does good. The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made (Psalm 119:68). God is intimately involved in his creation. He waters the plants, feeds the birds and animals, and tenderly cares for his people.

Even if we aren’t good, he still causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:45). We may not realize that all he does for us is good. Sometimes it doesn’t seem good at the time.

When wrapping presents at Christmas, my mother would use whatever box she had lying around, such as cereal boxes, shoe boxes, etc. My son, who was about 3 or 4 years old, received a gift from my mother. He eagerly tore the festive wrapping from the gift, revealing a cracker box. My son said, “Crackers? I don’t want crackers!” Laughing, I explained that he needed to open the box to see his real present.

Ladies, don’t we sometimes think that a situation or closed door isn’t good? We didn’t get the job; our boyfriends broke up with us; the flight was delayed. I often look back to discover that God’s goodness protected me from something that wasn’t good for me.

Why would God share his goodness with us? The reason God is good to you is because he wants you to turn to him (Romans 2:4 CEV). Turn back and live (Ezekiel 18:32 NLT)!

Terri