God is Good

God is good. God is generous, kind, merciful, and loving. God is tender towards those He has made. Jesus said there is none good but God:

Mark 10:18 "Why do you call Me good?" Jesus asked. "Only God is truly good.

Jesus wasn’t playing with the man. Jesus wasn’t claiming to not be good. Jesus was telling the man his casual use of the word missed the very nature of who Jesus was. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are unfathomably good.

God’s goodness is evident all around me. It is evident in the smile on my kid’s faces, in the breeze on a spring day, the meal I eat every night. Each breath is tangible evidence of goodness. I have lived 40 years and never not had a roof over my head. If I had gone homeless for part of that time, that wouldn’t be an indictment against God’s goodness, but the truth is, I haven’t. I have always had enough to eat…in fact I have always honestly had more than enough. Although I have spent countless hours…days…months even….worrying about what was in the future, or how to make ends meet, or how to get out of a jam, the truth is, none of those imagined future events EVER took me down. I have never fallen and not gotten up…not once.

Yet there is this enemy of mine. He is called the accuser. He is named satan, although he was created as lucifer. He was made perfect, one of the highest angels…a covering cherubim. He experienced God’s goodness, lived close to God's glorious presence. He was adorned by God..cherished…. and then rejected it, accusing God of evil, even though he was the one who rebelled against the perfection of God’s plan for him:

Ezekiel 28:13-18 You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, Beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes Was prepared for you on the day you were created. "You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you. "By the abundance of your trading You became filled with violence within, And you sinned; Therefore I cast you as a profane thing Out of the mountain of God; And I destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the fiery stones. "Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, That they might gaze at you. "You defiled your sanctuaries By the multitude of your iniquities, By the iniquity of your trading; Therefore I brought fire from your midst; It devoured you, And I turned you to ashes upon the earth In the sight of all who saw you.

Satan accused God of holding out on him. The Bible says satan’s lies convinced 1/3 of the other angels to believe his accusations against God. They gave up everything good, trading their perfect future for hell, all based on the lies of one created being against the uncreated God. God says that when satan fell, it was simply the result of God letting him have what he wanted….fire from “his midst”…the pride, arrogance, and ignorance in satan’s own heart was released to consume him.

Satan risked it all to get what I have been given freely. This is the salt in satan's wounds. Towards men, especially those who have chosen to love God back, God is good…generous beyond all reason, faithful, just, merciful, kind, soft, and tender. The enemy constantly tries to accuse me of being unworthy of God, but even worse, he accuses God of holding out on me….satan accuses God of holding out on you. When satan lies about God, it is the most unjust act that could be performed on the face of the planet.

For satan to accuse the kindest, most generous, merciful, and just God imaginable of not giving me enough, or not noticing what I am doing, or not being fair, or forgetting me, or causing me to endure something too hard…this is a crime of the highest order. The only thing worse is for me to entertain the lie, to allow satan to breathe that kind of lie into my heart unchecked…unresisted.

I have entertained the lie far too many times. I’ve believed the lie that I am a victim, or have lack, or have waited too long…falling right into the enemy's trap…letting him lie to me about the One who moment by moment proves His goodness and love…breath by breath. God has gone to extravagant measures to show His perfect and wholehearted love for me. I set my heart to give his enemy no voice in my heart. I set my heart to speak truth to every lie. To let thankfulness…an honest memory of how God has carried me…meet every accusation. I will set God’s love…demonstrated by an honest memory and His words…as the seal on my heart.

Song of Solomon 8:6-7 Set me as a seal upon your heart, As a seal upon your arm; For love is as strong as death, Jealousy as cruel as the grave; Its flames are flames of fire, A most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, Nor can the floods drown it. If a man would give for love All the wealth of his house, It would be utterly despised.