Good

As I walked today, I overheard conversation between neighbors: “Hello, Mr. Jones!  How are you?”  Mr. Jones answered, “Good, how are you?”  The neighbor said, “Good.  How’s Mrs. Jones?”  Mr. Jones answered, “Good!  We went to see my mother yesterday.”  To this the neighbor said, “And how is your mother?”  Mr. Jones answered, “Good.”  The neighbor responded, “Good!  Good!”

It set me to thinking about the word, “good” and how very often we use it and how much of the time, it really means nothing.  But I was especially in tune to the word today as I had read Charles Spurgeon last night before I went to bed.  Consider the contrast in what the neighbors said (or didn’t say) to what Mr. Spurgeon says as he refers to the Holy Spirit.  He writes in reference to Nehemiah 9:20, “Thy good Spirit.”:  “All His works are good in the most eminent degree:  He suggests good thoughts, prompts good actions, reveals good truths, applies good promises, assists in good attainments, and leads to good results.  There is no spiritual good in all the world of which He is not the Author and Sustainer, …  He is good officially; whether as Comforter, Instructor, Guide, Sanctifier, Quickener, or Intercessor, He fulfills His office well, and each work is fraught with the highest good to the church of God.  They who yield to His influences become good, they who obey His impulses do good, they who live under His power receive good.  Let us then act towards so good a person according to the dictates of gratitude.”

Jesus said, in Mark 10:18, “There’s none good but one.  That is God.”  God is good; He is the Source of all good.  All that is good is of God.  As one mom put it to her son, “From God, I taught the good.  You embrace the good yet reject the Stream from which it flows.”  True good can only be embraced through relationship with the only One Who is good.  And if it is not “embraced” through Him, it is not truly good.