Refined - Finding Joy in the Midst of the FireSample

I am absolutely amazed at the words and the heart of God! Are you?! The Lord is good to all! His goodness is aimed at sinners and saints alike. Prostitutes can receive His goodness . . . alcoholics can receive His goodness . . . lawyers and the media can receive His goodness! God is good to rebellious teen-agers and to tax-evaders. Abortionists and sexual predators are not exempt from the goodness of God. What kind of God is good to people who don’t deserve it? I can assure you, if God was only good to those who deserved it, neither you nor I would be able to receive from the storehouse that holds God’s kind and generous goodness. You and I should be extremely grateful that receiving God’s goodness is not based upon merit or performance. God’s goodness is based on who He is and not upon who you or I have chosen to be. Rain, in the Word of God, is always symbolic of blessing. The words of Jesus that are quoted from the Gospel of Matthew declare that God blesses both righteous and unrighteous people. I don’t understand that unconditional part of the character of God, but I am thankful for it. There are many issues and aspects that our human minds are incapable of understanding concerning the nature of God. His compulsion to share His goodness with sinners is one of the incomprehensible truths of God’s eternally giving heart. You and I, and all of God’s creation, should rejoice in the promise that one does not need to earn God’s goodness in order to receive it from the Author of goodness. He is good. He is generous. He gives when I don’t deserve it. And that is what makes Him infinitely, perpetually, boundlessly, and altogether good!