Good and Ready

"For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive. And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You" (Psalm 86:5).

A child nags his mom and gets a familiar response: "I will get to it when I am good and ready!" An impatient response to an impatient request.

The Psalmist tells us that God is always "good and ready." Our God is a "good and ready" God.

It seems so basic. So simple. But once grasped, this knowledge of the soul that God is good, can be one of the most exhilerating and freeing discoveries you can ever know.

We are acquainted with bad. We are familiar with diluted good. But God is purely, wholly good. That is not something we are quick to accept.

Our defenses are always fully alert. The more "good" we see in someone we meet, the more suspicious we are. The "too-good-to-be-true" virus always gets blocked by our antivirus protection.

Why? Scars. We've been hurt. We've been conned. We've been used. We've been sold a bill of goods. The old cowboy movies set us up for failure. They always put the good guys in white hats and the bad guys in black hats. We thought we could trust the guys in white hats. Sooner or later, we learned different. Good is always diluted to some degree.

But not with God. God is always good. All the way up and all the way down. Frontwards and backwards. Through and through. Day and night. Always.

If you can grasp that, then move on to the next part: God is always ready to forgive. No reluctance. No pondering. No pandering. You ask - He forgives. Simple. Simply incredible.

Don't stop there. As amazing as it is, it's only half the verse. God is good. God is ready to forgive. And God has more mercy than you will ever need. You are not a contestant on His "Gong Show" that has to fear being booted.

He is abundant in mercy. All you have to do is call on Him. He's good and ready...

Perry Crisp