{"id":1050,"date":"2012-04-20T06:00:01","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T06:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/04\/god-is-good\/"},"modified":"2012-04-20T06:00:01","modified_gmt":"2012-04-20T06:00:01","slug":"god-is-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/04\/god-is-good\/","title":{"rendered":"God is Good"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Weekly Overview:<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s vital to the Christian life that we as sons and daughters of the most high God allow our affections to be stirred by the loving, powerful nature of our heavenly Father. Too often we feel that God is distant or separated from us. Too often we allow misconceptions or lies to place a rift between us and experiencing God. It\u2019s in reminding ourselves of God\u2019s character that lies are broken and a pathway is laid for us to encounter his tangible love. Open your heart and mind and receive fresh revelation of the goodness of God this week. Allow your affections to be stirred and your heart to be filled with desire to seek the face of your heavenly Father.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Scripture:<\/h2>\n<p><em>\u201cI believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!&#8221;<\/em> Psalm 27:13<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"worship\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Worship:<\/h2>\n<h3>One Thirst and Hunger by Bethel Live<\/h3>\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"display: block; margin: auto auto 30px auto; width: 100%; float:left;\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: block; margin: auto; float: left; border: 1px solid #000000; background-color: #484846; padding: 2px; -moz-border-radius: 3px; -khtml-border-radius: 3px; -webkit-border-radius: 3px; border-radius: 3px;\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AjpXDsd4zzk?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<h2>Devotional:<\/h2>\n<p>God is good. What emotion does that fact stir in you? I know for some this phrase stirs up unspeakable joy, while others of us seem to be immune to its emotion in our lives. I believe the issue for many of us is that the phrase \u201cGod is good&#8221; is so frequently said and so infrequently experienced. For many of us we are just told that God is good from a young age, but we are seldom given the chance to experience that goodness. Goodness is something meant to be experienced and then believed, not the other way around.<\/p>\n<p>David said that he would look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. He had already seen God\u2019s goodness in his life and believed that he would see it again. He knew for a fact that God was good and therefore he sought to experience that goodness. It\u2019s that same heart that the Sons of Korah had in the famous Psalm 84, singing, <em>\u201cHow lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God . . . For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness&#8221;<\/em> (Psalm 84:1-2,10). That sounds like the worship of a good God, a goodness that had been experienced.<\/p>\n<p>When was the last time you experienced the goodness of God? Psalm 33:5 says, <em>\u201cThe earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.&#8221;<\/em> God\u2019s goodness is here, just waiting to be experienced. James 1:17 says, <em>\u201cEvery good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.&#8221;<\/em> God is always good, and every good and perfect gift you\u2019ve received is from him! He demonstrates his goodness to us in innumerable ways, all the time. How is it then that we don\u2019t recognize it? How is it that we can be surrounded by God\u2019s goodness and not experience it?<\/p>\n<p>God has proven in Scripture that he works in our midst demonstrating his goodness, but we have to take time to listen and respond to these demonstrations. In Psalm 27 God says to David, <em>\u201cSeek my face,&#8221;<\/em> and David responds, <em>\u201cMy heart says to you, your face, Lord, do I seek.&#8221;<\/em> When God says <em>\u201cseek&#8221;<\/em> he uses a Hebrew word that is meant for more than one person. God calls all of us, his people, to <em>\u201cseek my face.&#8221;<\/em> Then in response we are to say, <em>\u201cYour face, Lord, do I seek.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Take time today to respond to God\u2019s invitation of goodness. Seek to look upon his face and to experience his goodness. He has laid a banquet table before you and is simply asking you to come and dine with him.<\/p>\n<h2>Guided Prayer:<\/h2>\n<div style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">\n<p><strong>1. Take time to quiet yourself and receive God\u2019s presence.<\/strong> Meditate on this verse:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cYou make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.&#8221;<\/em> Psalm 16:11<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Respond to his goodness by telling the Lord:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cMy heart says to you, Your face, Lord, do I seek.&#8221;<\/em> Psalm 27:8<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Make David\u2019s prayer yours today:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cOne thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.&#8221;<\/em> Psalm 27:4<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>Take time to make that prayer your own throughout your day today. Memorize it. Write it on your heart so that you can experience the goodness of God throughout your day. It only takes a minute to receive his presence and have the joy and peace that can only be found in Christ Jesus.<\/div>\n<p><strong><br \/>\n<strong>Extended Reading:<\/strong> <a title=\"Psalm 27\" href=\"http:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Psalm+27&#038;version=ESV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Psalm 27<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Weekly Overview: It&#8217;s vital to the Christian life that we as sons and daughters of the most high God allow our affections to be stirred by the loving, powerful nature of our heavenly Father. Too often we feel that God is distant or separated from us. Too often we allow misconceptions or lies to place&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":636,"featured_media":1056,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-first15"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>God is Good<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Weekly Overview: It&#8217;s vital to the Christian life that we as sons and daughters of the most high God allow our affections to be stirred by the loving, powerful nature of our heavenly Father. Too often we feel that God is distant or separated from us. Too often we allow misconceptions or lies to place&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/04\/god-is-good\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"God is Good\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Weekly Overview: It&#8217;s vital to the Christian life that we as sons and daughters of the most high God allow our affections to be stirred by the loving, powerful nature of our heavenly Father. Too often we feel that God is distant or separated from us. Too often we allow misconceptions or lies to place&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/04\/god-is-good\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"First15 Daily Devotional\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-04-20T06:00:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/450\/2021\/04\/6.01.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"4928\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"3264\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cdenison\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"God is Good","description":"Weekly Overview: It&#8217;s vital to the Christian life that we as sons and daughters of the most high God allow our affections to be stirred by the loving, powerful nature of our heavenly Father. Too often we feel that God is distant or separated from us. Too often we allow misconceptions or lies to place&hellip;","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/04\/god-is-good\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"God is Good","og_description":"Weekly Overview: It&#8217;s vital to the Christian life that we as sons and daughters of the most high God allow our affections to be stirred by the loving, powerful nature of our heavenly Father. Too often we feel that God is distant or separated from us. Too often we allow misconceptions or lies to place&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/04\/god-is-good\/","og_site_name":"First15 Daily Devotional","article_published_time":"2012-04-20T06:00:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":4928,"height":3264,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/450\/2021\/04\/6.01.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cdenison","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/04\/god-is-good\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/04\/god-is-good\/","name":"God is Good","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/04\/god-is-good\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/04\/god-is-good\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/450\/2021\/04\/6.01.jpg","datePublished":"2012-04-20T06:00:01+00:00","dateModified":"2012-04-20T06:00:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/#\/schema\/person\/ab397c9ca5ade37b7fc66fefa43eb0cf"},"description":"Weekly Overview: It&#8217;s vital to the Christian life that we as sons and daughters of the most high God allow our affections to be stirred by the loving, powerful nature of our heavenly Father. Too often we feel that God is distant or separated from us. Too often we allow misconceptions or lies to place&hellip;","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/04\/god-is-good\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/04\/god-is-good\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/04\/god-is-good\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/450\/2021\/04\/6.01.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/450\/2021\/04\/6.01.jpg","width":4928,"height":3264},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/2012\/04\/god-is-good\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"God is Good"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/","name":"First15 Daily Devotional","description":"Scripture, reflection, prayer and more","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/#\/schema\/person\/ab397c9ca5ade37b7fc66fefa43eb0cf","name":"cdenison","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/author\/cdenison\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/636"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/first15\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}