Because of Jesus.  I don’t need any more reason to declare the goodness of God in my life!  Even if He were to do no other thing for me, the fact that He loved me so much to lay down His life for me, and to give me His own Spirit as a Comforter, I know that He is a good God!  I know that this thing He has done for me, He didn’t do it just for me, but for every one of you out there!  He did it for us!

Now, I am all for counting my blessings, and giving thanks to God for each one of them…but I stop short at declaring that THAT IS WHY GOD IS GOOD!  No, that is wrong…and inconsiderate of those who may not have been so fortunate.  Take this song as an example…  I can never seem to sing along, as I imagine so many other people will stop short of praising the Lord, if these were the reasons to give Him praise…

I’m sure they meant well, but what faux pas!  He actually sings: “Somebody’s little child somewhere is naked and ain’t gat no clothe to wear.  Somebody’s child somewhere has gone all day long and ain’t got no bread to eat.  Look at your child and my child, look at the home we gat for them to live in, look at the clothes we gat to go on their backs, look at the bread we gat on the table, you tell me, ain’t God a good God?”  Like you’re kidding me?!  So isn’t God good to the poor too? What about the blind, the mute, the lame and the sick, was God bad to them?  Is God good because you are rich, able-bodied, clothed and well-fed?

Remember your Lord and Saviour, who left the comforts of Heaven to live a poor life on Earth, who though is above death submitted Himself to it, so that we may be reconciled with God?  Remember how He commanded you to forsake all those things, even your own life and follow Him?  Remember how He told you not to labour after such perishable riches, but to store up treasure in Heaven…by giving to the poor?  Remember how He told you that life is more than food and the body more than clothes?

If you follow Jesus, how can you be comfortable feasting on your much, knowing that others are going without?  And can you really go to them, saying “just look at our blessings”, flaunting your wealth and comforts as reasons why they should follow Jesus too?  Do you suppose that is the reason Christ came, that you may have a more comfortable life?  We are blessed and God is good, not because of these temporal things…but because of the work He accomplished on the Cross!

Rather than look at your blessings and say “that’s why God is good”, look at your blessings and consider those who do not have…and share with them your blessings, because God is good like that!  That’s what He told us to do…  True love, true religion is practical (Jam 1:27, Jam 2:15-16).  The Bible says: “He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise” (Luke 3:11).  If you are rich, and they are starving, and you declare it is because God is good, they will curse your god!  It would be evident to all that your god is not Jehovah, but Mammon.

This old song, by Willie Banks & The Messengers, came back to me one day in Church, when they were doing “Thanksgiving”.  All dressed in their Sunday best, healthy and well-fed, they had many reasons to be thankful.  But to whom?  We take for granted that it is God whom we serve because we give Him one day a week to praise and acknowledge Him as our Lord, when we dedicate the other six days working for money, labouring for the food that will perish, and giving little thought to the work He has commanded us to do.

If we had been working for God all week, we can be sure that it is God who has blessed us…but, if we have been doing our own thing, can we really say it is God we serve?  Regardless, God is good all the time, to the just and the unjust.  We should all be grateful for that; even as we give thanks for both our individual and shared blessings.

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