James 1:16–17 (NKJV) — “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”

When I think about the goodness of God there is an immediate overwhelming within. I know so little and yet in the microscopic glimpse of the nature of God I am left in speechless awe. Goodness is but one attribute of God and yet its depths leave us with a mix of thoughts and feelings–humbled, encouraged, loved, and joyful and wanting to know more.

God is good and from Him all goodness flows. Where else can it come from? There is no other living God. He has repeatedly announced that He alone is God and there is no other god besides Him. There is no other source for goodness, mercy, grace, and love to originate from. How grateful that He is good.

One of the challenges that we have in this life is that too often we use feelings and experiences to define reality and truth. When we do this, we fail to see and use God’s definition of goodness. His Word and His ways teach us the depths of what good is, and how to be good, including what  is and isn’t good. It is when we use other standards, criteria, or measurements to define and determine what is good that at the very least we miss the goodness of God. At the worst we abuse His goodness.

How is the Goodness of God Abused?

1. The most common way is by thinking that goodness originates from within us or others, rather than the Originator—God (James 1:16–17). How can a created being, whose whole existence is dependent upon its Creator originate any goodness from itself … since “all good” gifts comes from Him? Any good that is within us and that we express is from God. It is because of God that we are able to be good to do so. He enables us to know and distinguish good from bad and to love good rather evil. For those who despise good and prefer to do evil and harm to others do not reflect the goodness of God, but as Jesus Christ said, “They are of their father, the devil.” We must remind ourselves that ‘God is summurn bonum, the chiefest good’;
2. Forbid ourselves from partaking and enjoying God’s goodness, and as some, create rules to keep others from enjoying His goodness (1 Timothy 4:1–5). How does this happen? By not accepting everything that God has created as being good. The biblical context above gives a few examples of man abusing God’s good gifts.
3. When we consider something that is of God as being merely, sorta, kinda good, or not good at all, for ourselves or someone else, then we have robbed Him of glory that is due Him. This applies to people that He puts in our lives, and also to things, events, and circumstances (Luke 7:33-35). Just because we cannot currently see good in something or see God’s usefulness and purpose for something does not mean that it is not good from Him. How shallow is that deduction? For example, it wasn’t until 2009 that medical science realized the good purpose of the spleen in healing after a heart attack. It wasn’t too long ago that science considered the spleen a useless organ of the evolutionary process. Not anymore. If God created it, it is good and has its purpose, whether we have discovered it or not.
4. Accusing God of not being “as good as He could be” when evil is manifested in our world. Evil does not negate the goodness of God. We must learn to look for God in the midst of tragedy, pain, and sorrow. He is present. His goodness is faithful and He is faithful in His goodness–a lesson to imitate as His beloved children;
5. We err by limiting God’s goodness as being solely benevolent. His goodness is also wise, righteous, just, holy, and in perfect agreement with the rest of His other divine attributes. One attribute does not contradict another. Each of His attributes perfectly expresses the others. As Paul Helm (emeritus professor at the University of London) wrote, “But the goodness of God has a deeper and richer (and more mysterious) character than benevolence alone.”; and
6. We fail when we do not attribute the small graces in our daily lives to His goodness working in us and towards us and for us.