God is Good by Denise Loock

God’s goodness is something believers and non-believers ponder from time to time. Denise Loock is one of my favorite devotional writers, and she has a delightful way of looking at the goodness of God. We would love to hear your comments! 

2MefromHim Devotional

For the Lord God is a sun and a shield; The Lord gives grace and glory. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.  Psalm 84:11 (NASB)

When I’ve been praying about a situation for a long time, maybe even years, and I see no evidence of it being resolved, I wonder about a promise like the one in Psalm 84:11. If God isn’t going to withhold any good thing from those who walk uprightly, why hasn’t He answered my request?

Then I thought about chocolate, which sad to say, is something I think about often! Chocolate is a good thing in the sense that it is tasty, and if it’s dark chocolate, the antioxidants it contains promote good health. However, I can’t eat chocolate every time I want it. Eating too much chocolate isn’t good for me—a chocolate-rich diet can lead to weight gain, diabetes, and/or insomnia.

“Good” is always a relative term. When God promises that He won’t withhold what is good, He is defining good in an eternal sense, not a temporal sense.

What is good in the eternal sense for me and for my loved ones? What is good in the eternal scope of His divine plan for all of humanity? I don’t know the answers to those questions, so it’s impossible for me to determine what is “good” and “not good” from God’s perspective.

In Psalm 34:10 David said, “those that seek the Lord lack no good thing” even though he was homeless and practically friendless when he wrote those words. Throughout his life he prayed for “good” things that God didn’t answer in the way he desired. His best friend Jonathan was killed, his son Absalom revolted against his father’s reign, and the infant son died that Bathsheba bore. Yet David still believed in God’s inherent goodness and declared near the end of his life, “I have never seen the righteous forsaken” (Psalm 37:25).

I’ll probably never understand “goodness” as God does, but like David I can declare by faith that “You are good, and what you do is good;” and I can pray, “teach me your decrees” (Psalm 119:68).

By Denise Loock

About the author:

Denise Kelso Loock is a former English teacher, Bible teacher, speaker, writer, and editor. Her work has appeared in a variety of well-known devotional publications. She is the founder and writer at http://digdeeperdevotions.com/.

A collection of Denise’s devotions, Open Your Hymnal: Devotions That Harmonize Scripture With Song, was released by Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas in 2010. To read more about the book or to order it, click here.  A second volume of hymn devotions, Open Your Hymnal Again, was released June 2012. To read more about it, click here: Open Your Hymnal Again.

Denise taught a weekly women’s Bible study at the Montgomery Evangelical Free Church in Belle Mead, NJ, for 15 years. Over the last 5 years, she developed and taught her own Bible study curriculum: The Life of Joseph, The Life of Moses, and The Life of Joshua, and the books of 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel. Denise is currently teaching a Bible Study on Ruth at  Long’s Chapel, in Waynesville, NC.

She lives in Western North Carolina with her husband and their cat, Ginger. They have two grown children.

Connect with Denise:

Website: www.digdeeperdevotions.com

http://www.journeychristiannews.com/wordpress/

http://www.lightningeditingservices.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EditorDeniseLoock?fref=ts

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DLoock

Book links:

Open Your Hymnal: http://www.amazon.com/Open-Hymnal-Devotions-Harmonize-Scripture/dp/0982206577/

Open Your Hymnal Again: http://www.amazon.com/Open-Your-Hymnal-Again-Devotions/dp/0984765573/