God is Good All the Time!
God is Good All the Time!
Think about the power of this statement for a moment.
If God is Good All the Time, then:
He is Loving – All the Time!
He is willing to Forgive – All the Time!
He is Just – All the Time!
He is Available – All the Time!
The people of Africa, where this statement of faith and praise originated, understand this power – Specifically in the African Nation of Liberia.
To the Liberian Christian Community this greeting comes out of times of real distress and turmoil. Through years of civil war, entailing violence, hatred, and separation from loved ones, this community of believers has not wavered from the from the promise that “All things work together for those who love the Lord and are called according to His Purpose!” They do not waver because they know that “God is Good – All the Time!”
To the Liberian Christian, this statement “Explodes from the Heart,” it is their way of telling the story of what God has done and continues to do for them both as individuals and as a people.
If we as believers, as partakers in the Goodness of God, if we really hold this statement as true, then we should be motivated in an uncontrollable way to share this Good News with a lost and dying world!
Hear again the words we so often sing, “We were sinners, so unworthy, still for us He chose to die. Filled us with His Holy Spirit, now we can stand and testify that His Love is everlasting and His mercies, they will never end.”
This verse of song causes the words of Romans 5:8 to jump off the page, “But God demonstrates His Love for us in this: That while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Do you have goose bumps yet? Is the Holy Spirit tugging and prompting a desire deep within you to rush out and share the message of God’s Goodness with everyone you meet? If so, then do it! The Great Commission challenges us all to “Go into the entire world and share the Good News.” The Good News we are to share is that God is so good and He loves each and every person; He sent His Son as the ultimate and final sacrifice for our sin; That a secured eternal future awaits those who accept Christ; And that no matter where someone finds themselves, no matter what they have done, God loves them and is waiting for them with open arms!
Share this with someone today. So that they too may someday exclaim the hope found in the words of the American Quaker Poet, John Greenleaf Whittier:
“I see the wrong that round me lies,
I feel the Guilt within;
I hear, with groan and travail – cries,
the world confess its sin.
Yet, in the maddening maze of things,
and tossed by storm and flood,
To one fixed trust my spirit clings;
I know that God is Good!”
In closing, let me share a story with you that you may have heard:
Charles Spurgeon tells of a time he vacationed in a remote area of England because he had been told that many nightingales lived there. To his disappointment, just as he arrived it began to rain. The weather turned cold and Charles Spurgeon fear that the purpose of his trip had been spoiled. However, sitting by his open window, he suddenly heard a delightful melody – A nightingale began to sing its beautiful song while perched on a branch just outside. The only light was a dim lamp, burning at the entrance to the hotel. The nightingale, oblivious to the rain and cold was singing its song in that glimmer of light. This is what Spurgeon wrote of that night, “I do not expect to listen to anything so sweet again until I hear the angels sing in glory. The God of that nightingale is the same loving savior I serve. In spite of darkness, storm or thorns, he always provides some ray of light and gives a song in the night.”
Friends, in spite of your own dark night, storms and thorns, you can always hear the sweet song of a nightingale in your own life because…God is Good – All the Time!
