Episode #203 Rediscover God’s Goodness – Knowing God

Hey friends, it's Jen, and welcome to Good God Talks. I want to start off today's episode with a quote I read recently from author Tim Stafford, and this is what he said, Jesus has become “deceptively familiar. People think they know all about him, so they never look at him. When they finally do, they are surprised at what they find. Jesus may seem to be a stranger, even though they have grown up in his company."

This quote resonated with me for a bunch of reasons. And one of those reasons is the series that we're in right now on knowing God, because we're looking at some of the aspects of God's character and nature. And if you've been in the faith or around church environments for any length of time, some of these aspects about who God is will likely sound familiar.

But they can become deceptively familiar. And when that happens, we can stop looking for them. We can stop looking for how these qualities of God are on display in who he is and what he's like and what he's like toward us.

And I want to help you build this habit of talking with God all the time. Of having these uncommon, but exquisite conversations with God in everyday normal moments of your daily life. And so we're looking again at qualities of God. We're looking at what the Bible tells us about his character and his nature so that we can take what we're hearing, and we can look at what we're experiencing and hold them up against the standard of who God truly is, about what the Bible tells us He is like to see if what we're hearing and what we're experiencing is lining up with that.

Take this opportunity to get to know these qualities of God in a new way.

Don't let them become deceptively familiar to you and miss out on the new things that God wants to show you about who he is.

And today we're looking at God's goodness.

God is good.

And so he always acts in goodness.

His actions are always in agreement with what is right and true and good. There's so many verses that talk about God's goodness in the bible and these verses also talk about the way that he shows his goodness to humanity.

You'll see how in the same sentences where they talk about God's goodness. They talk about him teaching. They talk about him forgiving, and they talk about his steadfast love.

Psalm 25:8-10 says, “Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.”

1 Chronicles 16:34 says, “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!”

The word hesed, which is often translated loving kindness or steadfast love is also oftentimes translated goodness, depending on your Bible translation. And I think it's so interesting and powerful to think about it in this way. His goodness often is on display to us through his steadfastness, his loyal love, his loving kindness toward us.

Psalm 86:5 says, “For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.”

Goodness is not just something God is. It's also what he does.

Psalm 119:68 says, “You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.”

Psalm 145:9 says, “The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.”

God is good. It's part of his very nature. And there is no darkness, there is no evil in him. Just like darkness is the absence of light. Evil is the absence of goodness.

1 John 1:5 says “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”

And James 1:13 says “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.”

We know that this is true about God because his word tells us that it is. And so even now, through God's living and active word through scripture. God is communicating with us about what he is like. He is speaking to us about himself, about his goodness.

This is one of those ways we can get too deceptively familiar with God. We can get too deceptively familiar with the Bible and say, “Oh yeah, I've heard that verse before. Oh yeah, I'm familiar with that. I know God is good.”

But there's always more we can experience of God and with God.

In this moment right now, as you're listening to this podcast, God can bring a greater revelation of his goodness personally to you.

And so our question today comes in two parts, and we're asking God to show us how this aspect of his character and nature applies to us.

God, what does it mean that you are good?

And then part two,

How have I experienced your goodness?

I'm excited about what God wants to share with you. Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

Connect with Jen on Instagram