God is Good; Therefore...

I am fully funded for my upcoming trip to Thailand, which is such a blessing and encouragement. There are still people at church who ask how my fundraising is going, though, and each time, I get to say, "I'm done! God is good!" And it's true - He is good. But I have been reflecting recently on how often I praise His goodness to me only when I experience "good things" (read: things that I want) from Him.

There is an essential distinction that I often fail to make. God is good. Always. In all that He does. However, we usually say, "God is good because...(insert something good you experienced from Him)." But God isn't good because He does good things. His goodness and character are not dependent on His actions. Rather, His goodness produces those good actions. It is much more truthful to say, "God is good; therefore He..."

God isn't good because he chose to send His Son - He is good. Therefore, out of His overflowing goodness, He chose to send His Son. He isn't good because He provided for my Thailand trip. He is good and therefore, I am now fully funded. If I wasn't funded, it was still because God is good and always does good.

You see, when we make God's goodness dependent on His actions, trials and sorrows can break us. When something happens that we don't understand, we don't know where to turn because we have always said that God is good only when we received His blessings.

But when God is good always and regardless of what we understand to be a "beneficial" thing, we have a refuge in the time of the storm. We can run back to the Father and cry out that He is good and does good (Ps. 119:68), and therefore know that we only ever experience good things from His hand.

God is good and therefore He does all things well. This God is an anchor for our souls.