A Child's Prayer

God is Great
God is Good
Let us thank Him for our food.

How many of us learned this simple prayer when we were kids? I've said it so many times, it took me close to 50 years to realize how important these simple words are. I would even argue that these are the two most important characteristics of God and can be used to explain most any circumstance: God is great and God is good. God is BOTH of these and He is both of these ALL of the time. This gives me alot of comfort. No matter what is happening to me or around me in the world, I know that God is in control. He is all powerful. There is nothing, no detail no matter how small, no event no matter how big that He is not in control of. But to me it is equally important to know that God is also good. This means that no matter what is happening under God's control, even if I don't like it or understand it, I know without a doubt that God's will and His intentions are all good, all the time. God's wrath is good; His discipline is good; the suffering He allows me to experience IS GOOD!


"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever." (Psalms 107:1)

"O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!" (Psalms 34:8)

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to [His] purpose." (Romans 8:28)

God and goodness cannot be separated because God IS goodness. There is no other thing that exists that is good. Certainly not man, as Jesus proclaimed when he stated,“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good...." (Matthew 19:17)  Or as Paul says in Romans 3:10-18:


"As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
 there is no one who understands;
 there is no one who seeks God.
 All have turned away,
 they have together become worthless;
 there is no one who does good,
 not even one.
Their throats are open graves;
 their tongues practice deceit.
The poison of vipers is on their lips.
Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood;
 ruin and misery mark their ways,
 and the way of peace they do not know.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.”


And yet many claim that God should let them go to heaven because they have done good works. It has taken me a long time to understand completely that there is NO good work that I can do for God. There is no action I can perform that would be righteous in the face of God's perfection. I just can't do it!! My sins are abominable and I can't ever do enough penance to make it up to God.

"All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." (Isaiah 64:6)

God is the only provider of all that is good. As it says in James 1:17, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." God's goodness cannot be more self evident than in the fact that He chose to send His Son to earth as a man, allowing Him to be vilified, rejected, beaten, cursed and ultimately hung on a cross by the very beings for whom He created and in whom He breathed life. It's unfathomable. There is no greater act of goodness and love than that which Jesus did for us on that day when he literally took all of our evil acts upon Himself so that we might live. I don't deserve that. I weep when I realize the magnitude of that amazing act of grace. God is great and He is very very good.

"This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all." (1 John 1:5)