God is GOOD
As we continue in our GREAT GOD series, today we are talking about God’s Goodness. You have most likely heard the expression, “God is good,” usually followed by somebody else saying, “All the time.”
But what does it actually mean? Would God still be good if…the bills didn’t get paid?…your marriage wasn’t restored?…God didn’t heal your child? Would you still believe God is good? That’s where most people feel tension with the words, “God is Good.”
Because if God is only good when life feels good, then what happens when life falls apart?
The Bible never teaches that God’s goodness is proven by a trouble-free life. In fact, it says the opposite.
Psalm 34:8 (NLT2)
“Taste and see that the LORD is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!”
That verse doesn’t say life feels good. It says God is good…and joy comes to those who take refuge in Him. In other words, you don’t experience God’s goodness when life is easy…you experience it when life is hard, and you run to Him as a refuge.
When the Bible says God is good, it is not saying God is nice or that God makes life easy for us.
We tend to define goodness by how life feels. We call something good when it works out, when it feels right, or when it hurts less than we expected. But that is not how Scripture defines God’s goodness. Psalm 34:8 assumes we need a REFUGE. It assumes danger. It assumes threat. It assumes that you and I will experience hardship in life, and THAT is when we experience God’s goodness!
Part of our human nature gravitates toward the idea that proof of God's goodness is evident when the cancer diagnosis is reversed, we have enough money to pay our bills, our spouse decides to reconcile, or our children earn a scholarship to a prestigious University. But, God’s goodness is not proven by a trouble-free life…
But He does promise to be close in the pain. That’s a deeper goodness. A deeper kind of strength. And maybe that’s what you are searching and hoping to discover and experience today.
God’s goodness is PROVEN by His presence in the middle of trouble. When the diagnosis or the hardship comes, God is a refuge you can run to when you are overwhelmed, exposed, and hurt because HE is GOOD.
God’s goodness is not defined by human experience
We tend to define other people based on our experiences with them. We like being around people who encourage us because they help create a good feeling in our hearts. When somebody has a positive attitude, we like being around them.
Granted – we often misjudge character…we can catch people on a bad day, in a bad moment, or in an awkward phase of life. But that is our experience with them, and from that moment on, most of our thoughts toward them are filtered through our experience with them.
…And we often speak about the goodness of God the same way. We want to define the goodness of God based on our experience with him:
We think God is good based on thoughts like: He healed me. He provided for me. He rescued me. He forgave me. He gave me a second, third, and fourth chance…
But that limits God solely to His engagement in our lives. God is good regardless of our experience with Him. And, God would still be good if you were not healed of a disease…or if your marriage falls apart…or if your family member dies without ever surrendering their life to Jesus and experiencing forgiveness of sin.
Now, as people wrestle with the concept of God’s goodness, they typically ask the question: “If God is good, why does evil exist?”
“Why would a good God allow people like me to be abused? Why would a good God allow human trafficking, pedophiles, violence, and cruelty? If God is truly good, why does He not eliminate evil altogether?” Most of us have wrestled with that question at one time or another…
So let me ask a series of different rhetorical questions...
At what level should God eliminate evil?
Would you like Him to eliminate all forms of evil, or only the kinds you personally hate? Would you like Him to eliminate Satan and his demons? What about liars and cheaters? What about people who stretch the truth? What about gossip, lust, hate, or unforgiveness? What about people who ignore the suffering of others? What about those who fail to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength? What about those who fail to love their neighbor as themselves? Should all of those people be eliminated, too?
Because if God were to eliminate all evil from humanity, our parking lot would be empty. My home would be empty. My kids would not have a dad, and I would not have a family.
The Bible makes it clear – when compared to the GOODNESS of GOD…there is not a truly GOOD person on this earth.
Romans 3:10–12 (NLT2)
“No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.”
All have turned away – No one is good… Each one of us has hurt somebody. Each one of us has chosen selfishness, greed, or unkindness at some point. The reason I say that is if God removed all evil by removing people, you and I would be toast! Even if we lived very good lives, our goodness would still pale in comparison to the unmatched goodness of God. And because God is good, He chose a different path toward eliminating evil. Instead of eliminating EVIL, He eliminated the POWER of evil. Instead of eliminating all humanity, through the death of Jesus 2,000 years ago, Jesus disarmed the power of sin, the power of the devil, and the demonic influence in this world.
Colossians 2:13-15 (NLT2)
You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. 14 He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. 15 In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.
Because God is good, He canceled the punishment for our sin, our evil…and when he did, he disarmed the devil and the powers of hell. God did not eliminate SINNERS – he ELIMINATED your punishment for SIN. GOD did NOT eliminate EVIL – he eliminated the power of EVIL. And God is so tremendously GOOD - He doesn’t let the evil we have done, or the evil done to us, go to waste…
He is SO good, he is able to USE evil for GOOD!
His goodness reshapes how we interpret our circumstances
That is what it means when you hear the words, God REDEEMS. REDEEM means God will USE EVIL for HIS GOOD. God does not cause evil, but His GOODNESS refuses to waste it.
He redeems your terrible stories. He redeems what you regret. He redeems brokenness. He redeems abuse. He redeems childhood trauma, including mine.
God’s goodness does not just answer questions about who He is. His GOODNESS confronts our interpretation of our experiences in life. His GOODNESS forces us to choose to INTERPRET our circumstances through our PAIN or through His CHARACTER.
SINCE God is good, do not let the suffering you have experienced in this life have the final word. Understand the suffering you have experienced through the lens of the GOODNESS of GOD.
So often people get stuck in a rut because they interpret their lives through the lens of their mistakes, failures, sin, and shame…or they interpret their lives through the bad things done to them…or their diagnosis…
I know it is sometimes difficult to overcome our past…but if we can be convinced of the goodness of GOD, we can overcome our past by trusting in His GOODNESS.
Whether you carry shame over what you have done or pain over what was done to you, if you trust in His goodness, God can redeem your story, too.
And remember, as followers of Jesus, the mission of Jesus belongs to each of us. Our mission is to lead people to a life-changing relationship with Jesus…
And the most influential way we can lead others to Jesus is by trusting in His Goodness as hardships unfold in our lives.
As we trust His goodness in hardship, others see Jesus
When we experience hardship…God is near. When we experience the diagnosis…God is near. When we experience abuse…God is near. When we make mistakes and cause pain to others…God is near.
Nahum 1:7 (NLT2)
“The LORD is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in him.”
God’s nearness is promised. And our trust in his nearness, our trust that he will redeem, our trust in his goodness, others will see Jesus!
Your suffering does not disqualify you from pointing others to Jesus. The hardship we experience often becomes the very place where Jesus is seen most clearly.
When we refuse to let pain have the final word and define our lives, people see the life-changing power of Jesus. When we become anchored in the GOODNESS of GOD instead of our circumstances, Jesus shines through the cracks in our lives. We do not pretend that evil did not happen. We do not minimize the pain we have caused to others. But we also do not let suffering define us. We let God’s goodness interpret it.
So whether you carry shame over what you have done, or pain over what was done to you, God is good. And if you surrender your life to Jesus, he will redeem your story too.
So, have you surrendered your life to Jesus? Have you experienced the GOODNESS of GOD by trusting him as your Savior and being forgiven for your sin? If you would like to surrender your life to Jesus, pay attention to the next few Bible verses.
John 3:16-17 (NLT2)
“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
Jesus did not come to judge you. He came to save you. He came to forgive your sin and to break the power of evil over your life. The cross is the greatest demonstration of the goodness of God that the world has ever seen. Jesus paying the price for your sin on the cross was the greatest demonstration of the Goodness of God that could even be shown.
Romans 2:4 (NLT2)
Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?
The KINDNESS of God is intended to OPEN your eyes so that you surrender your life to Jesus, receive forgiveness of sin, and begin a relationship with God.
Romans 10:9 (NLT2)
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
So, if you are ready to experience the GOODNESS of GOD and surrender your life to Jesus, pray something like this:
“God, I trust in your Goodness. I believe that Jesus paid the price for my sin on the cross, and I surrender my life to you. I turn away from my sin, and I commit to following you. Thank you for redeeming my life. In Jesus name, Amen.”
God is good. Not because life always works out. Not because suffering disappears. But because God is near in times of trouble. Because God redeems.
So do not let your pain define you. Do not let shame narrate your story. Do not let evil have the last word. Trust His goodness. Run to Him as your refuge. Let Him redeem what hurts.
Because God is good. All the time.