The Goodness of God
Week Thirty-Seven
September 7, 2025
Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence.”
— Exodus 33:18,19 (NIV)
How would you define the glory of God?
Moses may be able to help us here. From the tent of meeting, outside the Israelite camp in the desert, Moses asked God to show him his glory. He wanted God to reveal himself, to show him his ways. The Lord’s response? We see it in our scripture today, “I will make all my goodness pass before you …” Moses’ plea was to know God, and God was pleased to show him his glory by showing him not his power, or his sovereignty, or his greatness and majesty, but by showing him his goodness. God’s glory is inextricably tied to his goodness.
So, what do we see when we see his goodness? What is the essence of what it means to be God? How do we begin to define the full weight of his beauteous self? How does one attempt to communicate the God-ness of God?
Again, Moses will help us. At the heart, starting from the very core of God’s goodness, we see his compassion (or mercy), his gracious bent (to lean in with favor), and his forbearing temperament (he is slow to anger). These three reside at the center of who he is. Abiding with and emanating from his tri-centric nature is a richly abundant flow of unfailing love and enduring faithfulness, a bursting storehouse of lovingkindness kept for many, and a scandalous level of forgiveness rising to meet all manner of sin and rebellion.
I’ve found myself pondering his goodness lately; meditating on how it has manifested itself over my life and continues to do so through his correction, reconciliation, restoration, protection over my health and finances, and many other blessings. Maybe you’ve seen his goodness spilled over into your life by way of the gracious blessings of his favor: the wayward child brought home, freedom from a life-long addiction, joy that has replaced depression, a healed marriage and a softened heart. I would guess there wouldn’t be enough books in this world to sufficiently record the displays of his goodness in people’s lives.
We praise God for all that he has done! But going even deeper, moving past the gates of thanksgiving and courts of praise is the worship of him who is holy. Yes, we praise God for what he has done, but we worship him for who he is. God showed Israel his awesome deeds, but he showed Moses his ways, and Moses’ response was worship. In this place of worship, we are seeing the other-worldly, hearing the ring of angels’ voices crying, “Holy, holy, holy!” In this place we see and believe him whose ways (and thoughts) are higher than ours. In pondering the goodness of God, we give invitation to his presence and find ourselves in a holy place, a place of awe, humility, and true spiritual worship.
Monday
September 8, 2025
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
— Hebrews 13:8 (ESV)
I find comfort in the immutability of God. He doesn’t change over time and he can’t be changed by any outside influence or force. He is dependable, trustworthy, and at the same time, untamable and unpredictable. As I ponder his goodness over my life in its various forms, I’m reassured in knowing that his goodness will remain. “For I am the LORD, I change not …” (Malachi 3:6 KJV). His heart for us doesn’t change, and in Christ we find the culmination of this truth. He is the one perfectly consistent in his love for us. Now, we must remember that God’s goodness is not predicated by what he does for us; goodness describes who he is. So, whether we see another blessing in our lives or not, he is still worthy of our worship.
What forms does God’s goodness (the core of who he is) take in our lives? What about God can we depend on?
How has the Lord’s unfailing love, faithfulness, lovingkindness, and forgiveness impacted your life lately? What are you grateful to God for; what can you praise him for?
Tuesday
September 9, 2025
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
— Psalm 100:4 (NIV)
We praise God with thankful hearts for what he has done, and this is fitting for us to do and for the Lord to receive. “Hallowed be your name”, one of the most famous first lines, in one sense means to say, “may his name be made holy by our sacrifice of praise” — the fruit of our lips giving thanks to him. In the Old Testament we see that the Lord revealed his goodness in his relation to and treatment of Israel. 1 And today, we see the same for us as well — we see his goodness in action in our lives, and we rejoice over this. Praise and thanksgiving is one way we honor our heavenly Father. But he invites us in deeper, to feast on a richer banquet, to abide in a more intimate chamber …
How does praise and thanksgiving honor God as our Father? How do you feel when someone shows you gratitude?
When does God deserve praise? Is there ever a time or a reason when it is appropriate to withhold praise and thanksgiving from God?
Wednesday
September 10, 2025
But I, by your great love, can come into your house; in reverence I bow down toward your holy temple.
— Psalm 5:7 (NIV)
You could say that worship is when the deep of God calls out to the deep of us and we respond. Thomas worshiped Jesus when he saw him for who he truly was — Lord and God. The apostle John fell at Jesus’ feet as a dead man when he saw him revealed in all his glory. After the goodness of the Lord passed by Moses, he bowed to the ground and worshiped immediately. Adoration, awe, reverence, submission — these are all proper responses to seeing God for who he is. One drop of his presence, one unhindered glance at him, and we’ll be forever changed. Can I encourage you to dwell on his goodness, who he is, his ways — to make it a habit? I think you’ll find your heart lifted in a humble realization of the Guest who has come to visit you.
What gives us the “right” to enter into the presence of God? How do you respond to being in his presence, to sensing his nearness?
How would you define worship? What does worship look like for you?
Thursday
September 11, 2025
I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds. Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God?
— Psalm 77:12,13 (ESV)
Moses bowed, John fell, Thomas worshiped, Isaiah confessed. God’s works and his deeds flow out of his goodness, his ways. And when we peer past his mighty exploits to who he is, we see someone other-worldly; we see the Holy One. He is not like us; though at times, in our minds, we tend to form God in our own image. But his ways are far above our ways. Where we can be quick to judge, fast to fastidiousness, and ready for wrath, God is merciful and compassionate, gracious, and slow to anger. He is not like us; he is holy. When we fail, his mercy towards us outruns his judgment of us. When we are apathetic, he maintains his relationship with us. When we are unfaithful, he remains faithful and loving. May we worship him in the beauty of his holiness.
How can we be holy as he is holy? How would you describe holiness?
What should our response to his holiness be? Why do you think it is that no man can see the face of God and live?
Friday
September 12, 2025
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
— 2 Corinthians 4:6 (BSB)
God’s moral standard was perfectly administered by Jesus Christ through the sinless life he lived. Let me re-ask the question I first asked at the start of this week’s devotional: how would you define the glory of God? We need only look to Jesus, his life, his words, his relationships, his mission to see glory defined. Jesus radiates the Father’s glory. Everything that God is, Jesus is — the Word was God and the Word became flesh. I’ll end with this: there are two things that are very important to us as humans: to understand and to embrace. Jesus embodied these very two things. As it is written, “No one has seen God at any time; God the only Son, who is in the arms of the Father, He has explained Him.” (John 1:18 NASB).
In what ways has Jesus explained, or revealed, the Father to us? How have you experienced the goodness of God shown in Christ?
As a child of God, where could you grow to reflect the core of his goodness (compassion, graciousness, longsuffering)? What similarities can you find between God’s goodness and love as defined in 1 Corinthians 13?