Almighty God,
from whom all good things come;
grant that all your servants,
may by your holy inspiration
think those things that are good,
and by your merciful guidance
put them into practice,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
“She keeps coming back to the same issue… is God good?”
That’s what a friend shared about someone she’s trying to reach with the gospel. I realise I struggle with the same doubts too. I find I don’t live and act in ways that honour Jesus when I doubt God’s goodness. Do you?
This collect reminds us what God is like. It opens by giving praise that “all good things” come from Almighty God. It’s one of the first truths that the Bible reveals. We can’t ignore that drum beat of ‘good’, ‘good’, ‘good’ in Genesis 1. God is the creator of life. The one who made laughter, the sunrise, and the warm embrace of a friend’s hug. He’s our Father, knowing and providing for our every need (Matthew 6).
But we quickly buy into the lie that God isn’t the source of goodness for us (Genesis 3). At least, we don’t trust him to be good all the time for us. So, with Adam and Eve, we end up thinking ‘Can God’s law really be for my good?’ ‘Is there other ‘good’ that God’s being a spoil-sport and hiding from me?’
This is where the collect pairs so well with the James 1:22-27 reading in the Book of Common Prayer for the Fifth Sunday after Easter. James challenges those reading God’s good and perfect law to put it into action. Imagine what a people of justice, wisdom, and mercy we would be if only we lived out society as Deuteronomy paints it, or as according to Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount? It would be brilliant because God’s law is brilliant.
I need to ask God to remind me that he is good, and that what he gives is good. Of supreme importance is that I need to be reminded that I’ve been given Jesus. The one who gave his life for mine, clothes me with his righteousness (2 Corinthians 5), offers me life that satisfies (John 4), and gave gifts for me to serve (Ephesians 4). I need to keep asking that God would continue transforming my mind to increasingly see his goodness (Romans 12) and by his Holy Spirit’s work in me, to make me live more and more like Jesus (Romans 8).
In a world where God’s goodness, as revealed in the Bible, is up for debate, how can we not earnestly ask for God’s help to be reminded of his goodness, to think rightly about all he’s given us, and to live out lives that obey and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ?
So pray this with me:
Almighty God,
from whom all good things come;
grant that all your servants,
may by your holy inspiration
think those things that are good,
and by your merciful guidance
put them into practice,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.