So good

YOU KNOW the feeling. You just feel like you don’t deserve it. You don’t measure up. You might be praying for something, hoping, waiting, and you feel like it all depends on you. So deep down you doubt.

You think it will never happen because you have failed God somehow.

That’s the old way, the old religion. You do good and God rewards you. It a transaction.

Even when we come to faith in Jesus, we still think and act this way sometimes.

We go by the old rules. Work hard, keep your nose clean, and good things will come to you.

And I guess that works sometimes, but I know it doesn’t always. And I know I fail to keep my end of the bargain lots of times.

So what am I left with? I am forever indebted to God. I can never even begin to repay him for his blessings and mercy.

So how do I possibly even ask for anything? It’s like I owe someone a trillion billion dollars. Am I going to ask for even more?

But I’ve learned a few things about God along the way. And one thing is for sure.

God is good.

So I appeal to his goodness. When I ask for something, for someone, I appeal to the goodness of God.

Especially for conversions of faith, I ask in the name of God’s goodness.

Not because I did anything right. Not because I somehow deserve any favor. But merely because I know about God.

He is good.

And in that place, I can ask wholeheartedly. I can open my heart wide open in my asking. It’s a safe place. A wholesome, wide open space. It makes my asking more sincere and authentic. It doesn’t depend on my performance. I don’t need to measure up because I can’t anyways.

It’s not about me anymore.

When you appeal to the goodness of God, it changes you. His goodness can’t help but spread.

And I imagine, in my childlike way, that God sees and hears my prayer.

“Oops,” God says with a knowing smile, “He’s figured me out.”

And the smile of God beams over me and over all creation.

God is good… all the time. All the time… God is good.

Count on it.

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