The LORD replied, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, ‘the LORD,’ to you.” … He passed in front of Moses and said, “I am the LORD, I am the LORD, the merciful and gracious God. I am slow to anger and rich in unfailing love and faithfulness. I show this unfailing love to many thousands by forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. Exodus 33:19; 34:6-7
Some days it’s really hard to be a Christian leader, especially if you have any contact with hurting people. I’ve listened in horror as an older man described through his tears how the sexual advances of a male relative stole the little boy in him. I’ve wept with a faithful wife who, when she heard that her husband was leaving her, was so distraught that she couldn’t even stand up. Violence, selfishness, disease, senseless tragedy—the pain piles up like a multi-car collision. On days like this it’s hard not to question God’s goodness. The little Sunday school chorus “God is so good, he’s so good to me” just doesn’t ring true when you’ve been around life for a while.
Moses understood the heights-to-depths nature of leadership. From the literal peak experience of receiving the two tablets with God’s instructions on Mount Sinai, he descended to discover a nation out of control, worshiping an idol and becoming a laughingstock to its enemies. For a while God even contemplated destroying Israel. But eventually, when Moses asked the Lord to show him his glory, God passed in front of him, defining his goodness.
He defined his goodness in terms of compassion—a word that in Hebrew is related to the term for womb and signifies the kind of love a mother has for her unborn baby growing inside her. God defined his goodness in terns of slowness to anger—the Hebrew literally says that God is “long of nose,” which means it takes a long time for his face to flush in anger. He abounds in “loyal love”—affection for and faithfulness to his people. He is gracious and forgiving.
On a regular basis, leaders need to refresh their picture of God. If I look at God through the lens of circumstances, I can easily conclude that he’s not good. But God calls his leaders to look at their circumstances through the lens of his goodness.
—Steve Mathewson
Reflection
How has God showed me his goodness during the past week? the past month? the past year?
Prayer
God, you are kindness; you are patience; you are faithfulness; you are compassion; you are grace; you are love; you are good!
“That God is good is taught or implied in every page of the Bible and must be received as an article of faith as impregnable as the throne of God. It is a foundation stone for all sound thought about God and is necessary to moral sanity.” —A.W. Tozer; twentieth-century pastor and writer
Leadership DevotionsCopyright © Tyndale House Publishers.Used by permission.
