Soooooo Good!!

March 30, 2022

(Singing)

May your struggles keep you near the cross. 

May your troubles show that you need God. 

May your battles end the way they should. 

May your bad days prove that God is good. 

Let your whole life prove that God. 

You are good.

Even when things look bleak. 

You are God.

Even when I’m being cussed out.

You are good.

Even when war is tearing the world apart.

You are good.

Your words are good.

Your desires for us are good.

From the beginning.

It was our decision that marred what you created, still do, but even then, you are still good. 

You still love us.

You still work all things for our good, even when things look impossible to our human eyes. 

But what happens isn’t dependent on me, it is dependent on you and we have the complete assurance that you are good. Your actions over the millennia have proven that you are good.

You are the father to the fatherless (and there are too many without their physical fathers).

You put lonely people in families. 

You watered to land with plenty of rain.

You are a good God and I am thankful, honoured, blessed because of your goodness. 

So why do people say you’re not good? There’s a theory that people will see what is reflected in their own hearts. If they are always scheming to undermine someone, they assume that others are doing the same. If someone is generally kind, they often see kindness in others (even if they have to look very hard). But also, so often we believe that because we are being corrected or things don’t appear perfect in our lives, that the one who created us isn’t good. But the world itself no longer reflects God’s the way it was designed to because of our choice and the choices we continue to make. I’ve always felt that even if a person did not believe in Yahweh, but still chose to live the way he prescribed (ten commandments), the world would be better off. Most laws in most countries have a large basis in the commandments. So the absence of “goodness” from the world is because of us, not Yahweh. 

Psalm 73:1 – God is truly good to Israel, to those whose lives are pure.

But when you live according to the will of Yahweh, you see his goodness everywhere, even in the problems we face everyday. When the life we live with reflects Yahweh, it’s easy to see him and he gives us understanding of the world around us as messed up as it is. 

1 Peter 2: 2,3 – Desire God’s pure word as a newborn baby desire milk. Then you will grow in your salvation. Certainly you have tasted that the Lord is good. 

How do you taste that God is good? 

You feast on his word. 

You come close to him.

You trust him. 

You honour him. 

Then you will see his goodness. The veil of the physical world would be ripped away and we would see Yahweh. Just one glimpse fills us and  changes us for good. Too often we want the nourishment of Yahweh without tasting him: without experiencing him. But you know the only time someone is nourished without tasting for themselves? When they are so sick they can’t do anything for themselves and the IV is there to keep them alive. But once they can swallow, they are encouraged to eat for themselves. It’s the same way with Yahweh. We may feel his goodness in dire situations but as times improve, we are called to know him for ourselves as the IV is slowly removed. We have a choice to eat or die. Sounds morbid, but that’s literally the choice before us: life or death. When we choose life, we experience the abundant goodness of Yahweh. 

Psalm 25:8-10 – The Lord is good and decent. That is why he teaches sinners the way they should live. He leads humble people to do what is right and teaches them his way. Every path of the Lord is one of mercy and truth for those who cling to his promise and written instructions.

We all experience Yahweh’s fairness whether we believe his promises or not (Matthew 5:44-45), but when you hold on to Yahweh, when you cling to his promise, it’s not a casual, by the way thing. 

To Cling: To remain persistently or stubbornly faithful to. To be hard to part or remove from.

There’s a statement that says, “When you pry from my cold, dead hands.” That’s what happens when you cling to Yahweh. Even in death (when you can’t do anything), they would have to force the promises of Yaris goodness from you because you won’t give it up.

SIDEBAR: It’s raining! I hope it stops. Don’t mind hiking in a drizzle, but not the rain. 

Lamentations 3:25 – The Lord is God to those who wait for him, to anyone who seeks help from him.

Psalm 135:3 – Praise the Lord because he is good. Make music to praise his name because his name is beautiful.

Nahum 1:7 – The Lord is good. He’s a fortress in the day of trouble. He knows those who seek shelter in him. 

Why does scripture keep repeating that God is good? Because we aren’t inherently so after the fall. Yahweh made us good (And God saw everything that he had made and that it was very good – Genesis 1:31).

He made us good, but we walked away. And we forget what goodness is supposed to look like, unless we look to him. We have to be constantly reminded, look to Yahweh, because now our natural tendency is to look around us. And it’s hard sometimes to see his good when we do that, because we are blinded by our sins and that of others. So we don’t focus on what is bad, (it doesn’t mean that we don’t try to fix it) but we focus on who God is (which actually enables us to do something about the bad around us). 

The reminders that Yahweh is good and his goodness endures forever is to give us hope. It shows how important it is for our life.

Yahweh, thank you for being so good that we can’t help but talk about it and sing about it. Thank you. Your goodness is interesting who you are, but in what you do. It’s in the love you show. It’s in your words over our lives. You are so good and you’re good to me. 

God, You’re so Good by Passion

Of Yahweh’s Promises Playlist

After The Hike

Wellll. That was an experience. As they say, the first time for everything. I went on the hike this morning. Of course I did not move at everyone else’s pace. They were all rushing up hill, down hill and honestly there was no stopping to enjoy the views, but I did enjoy the hike. 

Walking down the last stretch of the hike, me and another person somehow start talking about fainting. She said she used to faint a lot and we spoke about people with epilepsy and how sometimes with all these things you don’t even have time to warn anyone that something was wrong. Got to the beach and relaxed a bit, stretching etc. I eventually sat down and somewhere I realised that something felt weird. By the time I thought it, it seemed that I had fainted. Never had that experience before. It was interesting to say the least. But the hike was fun and I’m planning another one for a couple weeks from now.