There were two men in the movie who kept getting delayed while attempting to get to a conference. Those delays placed them in the right place at the right time to do an amazing work for the Lord. It was a miraculous move of God to make it all fall into place.
Each time they were delayed, one of the men grumbled and complained while the other man kept saying, "God is good" to which the other had to reply, "all the time," then the first man would respond with "all the time" and the second would answer "God is good."
I have heard that many times before but this time it struck me in a more profound way. Verse after verse in the Bible tell us God is good. There is no way we can miss understanding being good is part of who God is. There is no way we can argue against God being good. Good is simply part of who He is.
Hearing it a few times on the big screen, I started to reflect on my behavior and attitude. Do I really believe that? Have I really accepted and trusted that no matter what, God is good? To be honest and transparent, no I have not. Looking back, I can see times that my belief or acceptance that God is good depended on my evaluation of my present situation. Maybe a more accurate description of my belief that God is always good depended on whether or not things in my life were going the way I WANTED THEM TO!
Do we all see it that way? Do we think God is good when He fills our dream and wish list? If tragedy strikes, if we lose a job, find ourselves in the midst of a messy divorce or some other such thing, do we question the goodness of God Himself?
"Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow." James 1:17
There are many more verses that tell us this about God.
Here is the really awesome thing, NO MATTER WHAT IS GOING ON IN OUR LIVES, GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME AND ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD! God is good, always and forever. He is never bad. He never wants us to fail or have bad things happen to us. No matter how good or bad life seems to us, God is good. He cannot be anything other than that for that is who He is and He never changes.
We can hold on to that in the bad times, we can praise Him for that in the good times. No matter what is going on around us we can be sure God is good. Many of the difficult times we find ourselves are in are the result of our own actions, decisions, and choices. In the verse above we see that all "good" things come from Him. He is not out to make us miserable.
Yet it seems, when good things happen, we claim our own handiwork but when bad things happen we blame God. Bad things happen because we live in a fallen world. God created the perfect existence but man sinned and here we are living among milions of things that are bad becasue of the choice to turn from God. Even though we might acknowledge that we still continue to make choices that take us away from God. Yes, even those of us who claim to be followers of God. Things are not always going to go the way we hope they will but that doesn't change the fact that God is good - all the time- no matter what.
Maybe we can start a new chapter in our thought process. Maybe we can praise God in all things as we read in the Bible. Paul learned to be joyful broke or wealthy, hungry or full and so can we. Paul praised Him when things were awesome as well as when he was in prison and so can we. It is just acquiring the mindset that God is good always, in all things.
After seeing the two men apply those words several times in the movie when things were seemingly going wrong, I am awakened to be determined to praise God and recognize His never changing goodness at ALL times. As His people, let us sing praises to our God no matter what happens in our life. Let us praise Him for He is good!
God is good ... all the time... and, all the time ... God is good!