The Goodness of God get_app
God is good. He is not good because of an outside standard of goodness; God is the standard. God, in his very nature, is the highest good (summum bonum). All that God is and all that God does can be nothing other than perfectly good.
Read and discuss God’s goodness as it is revealed in these scriptures.
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God
is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
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You are good and do good; teach me your statutes. -
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.
And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
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The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made…. The
eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You
open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
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The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who
take refuge in him.
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Discussion Questions:
- What does it mean that God is good?
- What are some ways God has been good to you?
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How is God good even in the midst of suffering and sorrow?
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Nah 1:7 ;Ps 46:1 ;Rom 2:4-5 – it is God’s goodness that demands an answer to sin, but that also leads sinners to repentance) -
Is anyone good?
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Rom 3:10-12 ,Rom 3:23 ;Luke 18:19 – no one but God is good) -
How is God’s goodness displayed ultimately at the cross of Christ?
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2 Cor 5:21 ;1 Pet 2:24 ;Rom 5:7-8 ; God was perfectly good, punishing evil and yet saving sinners by the substitutionary atonement of Christ) - How should we respond to the goodness of God? C.H. Spurgeon says, “When others behave badly to us, it should only stir us up the more heartily to give thanks unto the Lord, because He is good; and when we ourselves are conscious that we are far from being good, we should only the more reverently bless Him that He is good. We must never tolerate an instant’s unbelief as to the goodness of the Lord; whatever else may be questioned, this is absolutely certain, that Jehovah is good; His dispensations may vary, but His nature is always the same.)
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the goodness of God.
Spend some time searching scripture for God’s goodness, discussing the good
gifts God gives his children
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Close your time of family worship in a time of prayer using the following prayer from The Valley of Vision:
The All-Good
"Thou hast helped me to see, that whatever good be in honour and rejoicing, how good is he who gives them, and can withdraw them; that blessedness does not lie so much in receiving good from and in thee, but in holding forth thy glory and virtue; that it is an amazing thing to see Deity in a creature, speaking, acting, filling, shining through it; that nothing is good but thee that I am near good when I am near thee, that to be like thee is a glorious thing: This is my magnet, my attraction. Thou art all my good in times of peace, my only support in days of trouble, my one sufficiency when life shall end. Help me to see how good thy will is in all, and even when it crosses mine teach me to be pleased with it. Grant me to feel thee in fire, and food, and in every providence, and to see that thy many gifts and creatures are but thy hands and fingers taking hold of me. Thou bottomless fountain of all good, I give myself to thee out of love, for all I have or own is thine, my goods, family, church, self, to do with as thou wilt, to honour thyself by me, and by all mine. If it be consistent with thy eternal counsels, the purpose of thy grace, and the great ends of thy glory, then bestow upon me the blessings of thy comforts; If not let me resign myself to thy wiser determinations."