As I concluded the chapter on the goodness of God in Pink's The Attributes of God, I was simply lying with my head down on the table, since I wasn't feeling too well. I thought to myself, "Can I really be of any use just lying around here?!" To my surprise, I answered myself, "yes!" Though I got up to heat up my coffee and try to be awake, I realized that God, in simply keeping me alive, is showing his infinite goodness. So whatever state or condition I am in- whether I'm lying around feeling yucky or energized enough to be doing a HIIT workout.. my life is a proclamation to the goodness of God.
I then started daydreaming about being a future teacher, with the usual bombardment of worries-- What am I getting myself into?? Can I really survive the battlefield of the public school classroom?? I began to create a mantra for myself-- how I love mantras-- "Pain is good, hardship is good..." But again I had to correct myself. No! GOD is good!! Yes, he does allow pain and suffering to do its perfect, growing work. This is another testimony to HIS goodness :)
Here are some other LOVELY quotations from the book I mentioned in the first paragraph:
"The goodness of God endureth continually" (Psalm 52:1). The goodness of God refers to the perfection of His nature: "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5)... nothing can be added to (his nature) to make it better.
All that emanates from God- His decrees, His creation, His laws, His providence-cannot be otherwise than good: as it is written, "And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it wasa very good (Genesis 1:3).
The goodness of God is seen in the variety of natural pleasures which He has provided for His creatures... Our physical lives could have been sustained without beautiful flowers to regale our eyes with their colors, and our nostrils with their sweet perfumes.
Everything about the structure of our bodies attest to the goodness of their Maker. How suited the hands to perform their allotted work! How good of the Lord to appoint sleep to refresh the wearied body!
The goodness of God is seen that when man transgressed the law of His Creator a dispensation of unmixed wrath did not at once commence. Well might God have deprived His fallen creatures of every blessing, every comfort, every pleasure... Notwithstanding the evils which attend our fallen state, the balance of good greatly preponderates. With comparatively rare exceptions, men and women experience a far greater number of days of health than they do sickness and pain. There is much more creature-happiness than creature-misery in the world. Even our sorrows admit of considerable alleviation, and God has given to the human mind a pliability which adapts itself to circumstances and makes the most of them.
The chapter concludes with a call to not forget God's goodness- we take it for granted because it is "so constant and so abundant." We must praise our good God- even when everything in our lives appears to be calling into question this aspect of His character. Remember: even when the storms rise, our God stays the same! "The LORD is God, the faithful God..." (Deuteronomy 7:9)
PS.. this book is $0.99 on kindle :))))
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