IS GOD STILL GOOD, EVEN WHEN WE DON’T GET WHAT WE WANT?
God is good! I often come across this short phrase on social media, on posts announcing births, engagements, marriages, and for other celebratory occasions. But what does it really mean? What is the person trying to say? The goodness of God is a fact. There are really only two options – good and evil – and anyone who reads their Bible is in no doubt that God is most definitely good. In fact, we wouldn’t be stretching it too far to say that God is the very essence of good, not just that He is good in the way that we might be happy, or sad, or anxious, depending on external circumstances. And it’s this knowledge of His unchanging goodness that makes me stop and pause when I stumble upon this phrase. Interestingly, this exact phrase is used only once in the Bible. It’s in Psalm 73:1. ‘Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.’ Here the psalmist recognises that God rewards those who live uprightly. I’m pretty sure that those who use this phrase are only trying to e