Good Work Part 1, God Does Good Work
“And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good…”
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
God is the definition of Good. True Good, He can do nothing but good. Which means that all of His work, both in the creation of the world and in His actions after the Fall, are ultimately good.
What is, then, ‘good work’?
There are plenty of definitions out there. One definition — and the definition that applies to what God does frequently — is that it is work done out of selfless love to meet another’s needs. Taking an action, creating something, or speaking something that impacts someone in a positive way. That is a definition of good work.
God created humans that needed to eat, and then He also provided them food. That was good work. God made color, which the created world uses for a variety of purposes, including communication and identification. That is also good work!
However, God’s good work does not merely stop there.
He didn’t just provide food, He provided food that can be delicious. From the most flavorful curry to the simplest bread, God provided humanity with the ingredients and creativity to elevate what could have just been solution to a boring, biological need into something that brings delight and serves an important cultural and social function. We could just be eating grey paste all day!
And color goes beyond its basic functions for survival as well. The bright, neon colors of poison dart frogs are a warning: stay away! Using the same laws of wavelength physics, the sunrise paints the world in a swath of pastel pinks and blues and rainbows appear in the sky, all created by God for our good!
On a more serious note, good work is also Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross to save us all. In that ultimately selfless action, God did good work.
Even through the sufferings and pain God allows us to go through, He does good work. Nothing He allows to happen to us will be without good for us (Romans 8:28)! And through that, we can trust Him.
Putting it in Action: Take a moment and thank God for all of the good work that He has done in creation and in your life. Meditate on James 1:17, which states that all good things come from God; that means even the most mundane elements of your life!
