The Goodness of God

By Tom Dennehy

“The Goodness of God”- A wonderful and inspirational song on YouTube.

The first verse tells us “I love You, Lord. Oh, Your mercy never fails me. All my days, I have been held in Your hands. From the moment that I wake up, until I lay my head, I will sing of the goodness of God”. Chorus-“All my life You have been faithful. All my life You have been so, so good. With every breath that I am able, I will sing of the goodness of God”.

“God is good all the time. All the time God is good.” This is so true and there never is a time when God is not good. Unfortunately, this may be one of the most overlooked attributes of God because we frequently accuse God of doing many things that are not good. Whether from misunderstanding, misplaced blame, or a response to suffering, humanity tends to miss out on God’s goodness and see only the brokenness and pain they think He ignores. However recognising God’s essential goodness is foundational to an accurate understanding of God’s nature, God’s work in the world and God’s plan for humanity.

The Bible repeatedly proclaims that God is good. God’s greatness is abundant (Exodus 34;6).His goodness is always with us (Psalm 23;6). He fills our hungry souls with good things (Psalm 107;8-9). Everything good comes from God (James 1;17). He is good, does good and gives good gifts to His children (Psalm 119;69).

Goodness is defined as “that which works for the benefit or betterment of another”. That which is good makes us better, heals us, restores us, improves us, strengthens us and makes us right. Because God is good He will always act in alignment with His character.

God’s Goodness At Work

The Bible tells the story of God’s goodness throughout human history. In the beginning, the goodness and love within the Trinity overflowed and created the world, culminating with the creation of humanity, created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1). God gave humanity the gift of free will. Tragically the first humans chose to exercise their freewill to disobey God, resulting in brokenness, sin, death and separation from God. However God is good and He always acts with goodness. Therefore, He responded to humanity’s sin with goodness and initiated a plan to make things right again. Over the centuries, God continued to guide His people toward healing in ways that improved and strengthened them. Then when the time was right, God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem and restore humanity through His death on the cross and His resurrection three days later. Jesus cancelled the power of sin and death, making a way for people to be restored to a right relationship with God and to live in relationships of goodness with others.

Created For Goodness

People have been created by God’s goodness to respond to His unconditional love and to love and care for one another. Being created in the image of God means that we have intrinsic value and worth. We have free will. We have been given the job of caring for God’s created world. We have the capacity to become like Jesus and grow in love with Him. He has given us the Holy Spirit so that we can grow in joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control reflecting God’s goodness in the world. When people choose forgiveness and restoration over bitterness and resentment, they inhabit God’s goodness. When they choose to tell the truth, instead of spreading gossip and telling lies, they communicate God’s goodness. One way to train ourselves to see God’s goodness is to take one minute at the end of each day to reflect and jot down how we have seen God’s goodness over the last 24 hours. We reflect on how we have seen something made better and as we train ourselves to recognize God’s goodness, we will develop a sense of gratitude which will help us grow in faith and love of God. The mistake we make is listening to the lies of Satan who is deceiving us telling us that God is holding something back from us. Just as Satan deceived our first parents he continues to spread division, hatred and war in our world. Jesus has given us everything by His death on the cross and has given us the bread of life in the Holy Eucharist, the gift of Himself –Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.

Let us praise and thank Him for His Goodness and for His Love and Mercy which endures forever.