What Do We Mean When We Sing About God’s Goodness?

I love worship music. Honestly, if I were a nonbeliever, I would probably still like worship music, because I love its style, too. Some of the most used lyrics that I could think of while planning this journal, all had to do with the goodness of God. We hear and sing these lyrics so much, and they are often repeated throughout the song. For example, the chorus in “Good Good Father” by Chris Tomlin, “You have been so so good to me” in “Reckless Love” by Cory Asbury, the chorus in “God, You’re So Good” by Passion, the chorus in “King of My Heart” by Bethel Music, and the chorus in “God is So Good (You Are Worthy)” by Pat Barrett. Although I’ve known almost all of these songs pretty much since they’ve been released, I never put the pieces together and realized how often the word “good” is used. My English teacher marks points off of our essay whenever we use the word “good”, because it can often be a dry word. God is not a dry God. Google’s definition of good states, “to be desired or approved of.” Obviously, as followers of Christ, we claim to desire and approve of God, but why? Well, because He is God, most would say. I looked up the definition of approved, just out of curiosity, when I came across the words “prove” and “show”. The first thing that I thought about was how God has shown Himself to me. A lot of people, including myself for a long time, feel like in order to see God working, which doesn’t happen a lot, you have to be really ‘spiritual’. Now that I’ve lived long enough to see God work in the present, and see in hindsight how He has worked, my view on this idea of experiencing God has changed. First off, He is always working in our lives. He doesn’t have any off days in loving and pursuing us. Sometimes when I feel distant from God, I feel like it is a mutual ‘break’ from religion. I have this idea that if I separate myself from God, He will give me space. Nope, not true. As I have looked back at the times that God has made Himself present in my life, I’ve noticed that He was most present in the times where I made myself the least present. Friendships today are a two person relationship. If I had a friend who never talked, texted, or spent time with me, I probably would space myself from them, and feel like they don’t like me. Yet although we do this to God, He doesn’t space Himself from us, He actually pulls us closer. I started to think, what happens when I try to space myself from God? I soon realized that a lot of the times that I’ve tried to distance myself from God, it actually ended up drawing me in to Him, but with a stronger attraction than I had before. The verdict is, you are 100% going to have seasons where you will try to avoid God, and try to do stuff on your own, and that’s okay. The main thing that matters is, how will you recover? When you ‘come back’ to God, you should feel ashamed of the fact that you tried to ignore His presence. Those who seek His presence will find it.

-Jack Hilsher

Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV)

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”