The Goodness of God

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” (Isaiah 43:2)

Recently I came across a beautifully produced video of CeCe Winans singing “The Goodness of God"*.  In it we see her singing this song, alongside another video where she is looking back over the happiest times of her life projected onto a screen. It’s truly heartwarming, and you feel her gratefulness to God as she sings ‘of the goodness of God.”

Having watched the video, I realised that she has focussed on one side of a two sided coin. God’s goodness to her in the happiest times in her life, the highlights of life, is depicted but not the other the side of the coin, life’s lowlights. These are reflected in the second verse of the song:

I love Your voice
You have led me through the fire
In the darkest night
You are close like no other

​God is good to us during the happy times, but His goodness somehow shines even more brightly and powerfully in the darkness. 

I am reminded of a conversation between Brother Andrew (God’s Smuggler) and Corrie ten Boom, the woman who, along with her family, rescued Jews in Holland who were to be sent to concentration camps and almost certain death. Many years after her arrest and concentration camp experience (her father and sister lost their lives at that time), Brother Andrew is in Corries’s comfortable flat. Looking round the apartment, he comments to her, ‘God has been good to you.’ Corrie’s reply was ‘Andrew, He was good to me in the concentration camp also.” Brother Andrew felt suitably reprimanded. 

Too often, we speak of God’s goodness to us in terms of the provision of material possessions, promotions work, relationships etc. If we think that way, we miss recognising and acknowledging the goodness of God when “You have led me through the fire.In the darkest night, You are close like no other.”

Shall we take time this week to mediate on the many times that God has led us safely through the waters, rivers and flames? Let us acknowledge this side of His character as we ‘singing of the goodness of God'.

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD
Painful moments, TRUST GOD
Every moment, THANK GOD
​(Rick Warren)

​Pauline Anderson