Is God Really Good?


God is good. All the time.

Just recently I found myself posting the above sentences on social media after I had gone through a rough situation. Why is it that when hard times come we refer to God's goodness? Is it because our feelings tell us He is good? Is it just a show of spirituality that makes us say "God is good all the time," but really we are just trying to keep our life together and put on a plastic everything-is-okay smile?

Is God really good all the time? And if so, why don't I always feel like He is being good to me?

I am a person who likes to see things in black and white. This is right, that is wrong. This is good, that is bad. If I try to apply this same principle to God's goodness, I find some errors in my thinking. Let's try to apply my logic to God's goodness and see how things turn out:

Earthquakes are bad, sunny weather is good.
Cancer is bad, a healthy body is good.
The car breaking down is bad, low gas prices are good.

Here's the thing: God allows both the good and the bad to happen in our lives. This is a list of circumstances. Circumstances that God may allow in our lives now or in the future. The error in my thinking is that if I base my thoughts of God's goodness on my circumstances, I will never believe that He is good. God allows things to come into our lives that bring us happiness and heartache.

Why?

Is it because He is good to us only when He chooses to be? Is it because He can't control His creation?

No! There is no "bad" in God because He is always good and He is holy. (Isaiah 6:3) He is in control of His creation because He created it. (Colossians 1:6, Isaiah 50:2-3) He created a perfect world with no sin and no problems. He created it out of His goodness. And in His goodness, He gave us a choice. We could choose to love and follow Him or we could choose to live our lives the way we wanted to. Yes, I'm referring to the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve. Even though we weren't present at the time the first sin was committed, every time we sin we confirm that we would have made the same choice they did.

When Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, the perfect world God created skyrocketed into a downward spiral of sin. This is why bad things happen. Sin. Our choice.

The circumstances of our lives, whether they seem good or bad to us, are allowed by God to happen. So what is really going on here? Does God's goodness change or does my perception of it change? His goodness is not based on what we think His goodness is.

"I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living." (Psalm 27:13)

Did you catch what this verse is implying? We have to choose to see God's goodness. It's always there, but sometimes we just aren't looking for it. If we don't choose to see His goodness in our circumstances or our lives, then we have a very human tendency to only look on the negative aspects of where we are.

Have you, like me, "fainted" or become weary and depressed because you didn't believe in God's goodness? It is a matter of focus on our part and not necessarily how good He is. God doesn't change, so His goodness can't change either. Only us and our viewpoints are subject to change.

When trials come knocking on your door and it seems they have the power to overcome you, look up! Look for God's goodness and open your eyes to see what good He is allowing to happen despite the circumstances. It may be hard to see the goodness through the hurt and pain, but God's goodness will help us through the tough times. Our feelings need to be based on facts, or they will lead us astray. The fact is - God is good. So when you don't feel like He is being good to you, go back to the facts and search the Bible and find God. To know Him is to know that He is always good.

No matter what happens, God is good.

All the time.

"Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!" (Psalm 31:19)


~ Tiffany ~

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