Refined - Finding Joy in the Midst of the Fireنموونە

“Good,” isn’t that a fairly boring adjective when used to describe God, the Creator of the universe? Coffee is good, and so is the weather. Church is good, and that Sunday dinner following church was especially good. Children can be good, parents are good, the stock market is rarely good, but ice cream is always good! Some crazy people falsely believe that Brussels sprouts are good, but those of us who are sane individuals know that chocolate is the very best good!

Why does the Bible, the most complete and true Book of all time, merely describe God as the ever boring but completely useful “good”? God is the most creative genius in all of recorded eternity! God gloriously created giraffes, centipedes, canyons, and orchids. He designed Niagara Falls and the Sahara Desert. He engineered hyenas and diamonds. God is so much more than good!

All other superlatives come after “good.” If God is not good, then He is not powerful, nor is He faithful. If God is not good, then He could never be our Healer or our Provider. If God is not good— all the time— then it is impossible to trust Him or to pray to Him. God’s goodness is the source from which His character and His reputation are birthed, and all other divine attributes are built upon the foundation of God’s eternal and perpetual goodness.

God is good totally, absolutely, and unconditionally. There is no bad in God, and there never will be anything less than good in Him. God longs to heal you and not to hurt you. God’s plan for your life is to mend you and not to break you. God, who is the greatest good of all of eternity, desires His absolute best for all of your life every moment of your life. He longs for His goodness to seep into the crevices of every day of your ordinary but miraculous existence.

God is the greatest good that exists and is the Source of all lesser goods. Anything good that is experienced on Earth was birthed in God’s heart and because of His eternal goodness. Creation was spoken into existence because God is good. Music was conceived in the good heart of Father God himself. The gift of family was given to humanity because God saw that it was not good that man should be alone.