Power and Goodness

One of the things I have harped on for the past year is what I consider to be the two most important things to know about God. The first thing to know is that God is powerful. That may seem a little trite but it is actually critical. We would not want to put our faith in a God who is not powerful. And if God is who He says that He is then He must be all powerful and more powerful than anything else in the universe. Furthermore, since He is all powerful then we can trust Him to do what He has promised to do.

The second thing to know about God is that he is good. Again it may seem that that is obvious and not much else to say. But it is the goodness of God which is so important. An all powerful God could be dangerous if He is not good or if His temperment is arbitrary and people would tend to shy away from Him. But because we know He is good always, we can run to Him with our problems, our hurts and our pains. We can run toward Him with our joys and triumphs. Now within the concept of goodness lies His love and grace and mercy and forgiveness, but it is essential that we really take this to heart. This is not a head thing, or a cute little diddie. It is the gospel - it is the goodness of God that was embodied in Jesus and resulted in the cross.

Oh and one more thing. It is in grace that these two things come together. Grace is the favor and blessing poured out on an undeserving people which is the goodness of God. But grace also is the power of God in us to do the will of God. In other words, He does not reserve His power for Himself but freely gives it to us. The key now is how we respond to that power and goodness.