God’s goodness conveys His generosity. His goodness means far more than His generosity, but it certainly includes His infinitely generous attitude toward us. By nature, He longs to bring joy and blessing to all His creatures.
Marriage ceremonies are memorable events for most couples if not every couple. Time and efforts are invested to create a great atmosphere for friends and loved ones to share in the couple's joy. People demonstrate their love not just with their presence but with tokens that are received and duly noted at a dedicated table or web platform in our modern era. What makes these gifts special is not the size of the gifts but the fact that dear ones give out of their own free will because of the love and value they place on the couple. From their storehouse of ideas and resources, they do or give something meaningful to minister to the couple's needs and make their joy complete. For parents in particular, this a very momentous occasion to choose and give their best gifts to their precious children as they leave home to begin the journey of marriage.
One person that can often be missed in these settings is the one who authored the institution of marriage. His name is never captured in the gifts book but He gives the best gift of all. He does this not only on our wedding days but in all the days of our lives. Even before our great grandparents, Adam and Eve, were created and joined together, he had prepared a lovely home for them. The beautiful and superfluously furnished Garden of Eden was His masterpiece of a gift for the first couple. Everything they would need to live a rich and satisfying life was supplied and He was in charge of all the details: lights, decorations, ambience, refreshments, recreation, in fact everything in their honeymoon package. And when he was done with it all, He said it was good!
For every couple, Papa God does this too though we may not see Him making provision. He is the One who blesses the work of our hands, places our needs on people's hearts, moves people to pray and aligns events with divine timing to make not just our special day but our entire lives beautiful. When all wedding guests have packed up and left, He leads us into our marital homes making Himself available to lead and bless us as we allow or partner with Him. Now the question is: would He withhold the meaningful gift of children from you after attending, witnessing and blessing your marriage? Definitely not! More than any parent, it delights God's heart to see the children He has created in His image fulfilling their divine mandate by multiplying themselves. That is his desire for you too.
Goodness is the very nature of God - His goodness and mercies have been existing and will continue to exist throughout eternity. As James 1:17 says, “Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow” (NLT). That is to say, anything that has the tiniest quality of goodness must have been inspired by, enabled by, resourced by, made possible by the abundant goodness that exists in God. No goodness can exist outside of Him. The Hebrew word towb from which we translate "good" is associated with words like pleasant, pleasure, precious, prosperity, ready, sweet, wealth, welfare, favored, and the list goes on and on. The sum total of all these aspects of goodness is found in God.
When you hear the expression "God is good", what does it really mean to you? Probably, you believe God is generally good but you don’t clearly see His goodness in your life. If God is good, why are things not working in my life? Many believe God is good but we don’t believe we have what it takes to merit His goodness. This is where we err because God's goodness is not merited. What did we do to merit Jesus dying for us? What did we do to merit the Holy Spirit? On the basis of these gifts He has given of Himself - His Son and His Spirit - He assures us that all other things that we require or ask according to his will will be done. As Paul puts it: "Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? (Romans 8:32, NLT).
We have all had glimpses or tastes of goodness through certain experiences with people who in some ways become symbols of goodness to us. For instance, someone providing money or resources in a moment of dire need, helping you without expecting anything in return, putting in a good word for you, extending friendship and companionship in spite of your weaknesses. When we think of goodness, these individuals come to mind because we tasted a certain kind of goodness through them. But no level of human goodness compares to God's. As Jesus told the rich man in Mark 10:18, “Only God is truly good." He exceeds any kind of goodness we can ever experience from man.
Human as we are, we often expect goodness on account of a virtue we have exhibited before, a service rendered, a group we associate with or belong to, or a good deed done in the past. Even in our walk with God, we sometimes expect some blessings in response to an act we have done - call it a heavenly reward or blessing - even though we know God's dimension of goodness and ours are worlds apart. In our hearts, we may consider the blessings others have received and feel that we have been unfairly treated.
Like the servants in the parable of the vineyard workers (Matthew 20:1-16), we may say in our hearts: "Ah God! Haven't I served you better or longer than so-and-so who has got so-and-so gift that I am still missing?" We may feel more entitled for certain gifts of God but the truth is God's goodness cannot be merited so we cannot demand it. Yet, at the same time, we know that God is too good to withhold good things from us. He is able to exceed our wildest expectation of goodness because He knows our deepest needs (Ephesians 3:20, Matthew 6:32). We must learn to trust God to give us nothing short of His best.
One account in the Bible that stands out to me on the subject of goodness is recorded in 2 Samuel 9. When God finally gave David access to the throne of Israel, he asked if there was anyone in Saul's family that he could show kindness, favour and goodness for Jonathan's sake. Jonathan was a friend who had extended sacrificial love and friendship in David's difficult moments and this man after God's own heart could not forget. Even after Jonathan had died, this king of Israel could not rest until he expressed his gratitude. If David, a fallen human with an imperfect record, could remember and return an act of kindness, how much more would our heavenly Father?
If there is one truth about God we should never forget, it is the fact that He is not unrighteous to forget any good work we render especially in His service (1 Corinthians 15:51). When Abraham attempted to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, God gave back his son and added a ram. Centuries later, He gave up His only Son to be sacrificed for Abraham, his descendants and all humanity. When Abraham returned from rescuing Lot and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, he was met by Melchizedek, the king of Salem and priest of God. God took the initiative to minister bread and wine to refresh Abraham and pronounce blessings on Him. Beloved, God never forgets and He will always outdo us in goodness.
In 2 Kings 4, we read the account of a wealthy woman who showed kindness to Prophet Elisha. She willingly offered him food and even built him a small rest room. Moved by this woman's generosity, Elisha asked what he could do in appreciation of the great concern she had shown. This woman said she had no need but Gehazi, the prophet's servant, noticed that she doesn't have a son and her husband is old. When Elisha prophesied that she would hold her baby within a year, she cried: "Don't deceive me and get my hopes up" (verse 16). Maybe, like the woman of Shunem, you are ruling out the possibility of having children and even relegating it to the bottom of your needs list. But I want you to know that your Father in Heaven knows this need and He is more than able and willing to provide it.
Once, my prayer partner called that he will visit me at home and would want some biscuits and a malt drink. For someone working at a mine site then, telling him that I couldn’t provide these would not only have been embarrassing but it could be mistaken as stinginess. But in that period, I didn’t even have money to buy food because I had used all I had to print books. As the day drew closer, I felt some pressure to find options but I had made a covenant with God that I will not borrow money. I've always wanted to experience God as my provider so I decided to wait for His provision.
That fateful morning, I was up early pacing my bedroom in prayer, in need of a breakthrough to save me from shame. Suddenly, I heard my phone beep - there was a mobile money alert from someone I hadn't spoken to for over six months. So I wondered if the person has sent it mistakenly and called to verify. The sender's passport processing request had failed and when the fee was returned, God asked her to send it to me. Amazing! That was God’s goodness. In this season, be ready and prepared to experience the timely and mind-blowing goodness of your Heavenly Father.
As Joyce Meyer rightly said, "We can’t buy, earn or deserve God's goodness. His gifts – forgiveness, mercy, grace, favor, salvation – are free. And we could never do enough to earn them or deserve them." God paid the ultimate price of Jesus so that He could with Him freely give us all things, including children. We do not need to work to merit this gift. We only need to trust His goodness and rest in the eternal truth that He knows this need and is committed to providing them at just the right time.
Are you a child of God? Does he love you? If earthly parents know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more God, your heavenly Father? If your earthly parents, guardians and loved ones knew how to give good gifts to you when you married, how much your heavenly Father? As Psalm 84:11 says, the Lord bestows [present] grace and favor and [future] glory (honor, splendor, and heavenly bliss)! No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly (AMPC). Do children fall under the category of good things? Yes! And I believe that your heavenly Father delights to give you this good gift too.
Scripture Reading:
Matthew 7:9-11, Psalm 34:8, Psalm 145:5-7, Psalm 107:8-9