God's Goodness

It’s easy to become jaded as we experience disappointments in life. We may think that God has abandoned us or is minimally involved in caring for us and the rest of the world. A certain way of thinking about God can seep into our lives. We may never say it out load, but our inner voice starts to say, “Maybe, God isn’t as good as I once thought. Why would a good God allow this to happen to me or on a larger scale, why does he allow global injustices to persist?”

Many biblical passages herald God’s goodness. Here’s a small sample:

Psalm 145:9 - “The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.”

Psalm 34:8 - “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.”

Psalm 33:5 - “The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.”

God’s goodness points to His unending generosity. He is for His creation. He is actively involved in caring for and blessing humans, the pinnacle of His creative work, but the rest of His creation, as well. This means that God’s purposes are good purposes; He has creation’s best interests in mind.

Now, of course, God in His sovereignty chose to allow sin to enter humanity. He gives us the freedom to choose for or against Him and His desires for us. This doesn’t undermine God’s goodness. What it does is it gives people a choice to follow or not follow His good path. Regardless of the choices we make, God continues to pour out His goodness on His creation – a creation hurt by sin.

The ultimate expression of God’s goodness was the gift of His son, Jesus. Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead, so that we might have eternal life. That’s God’s generous goodness in action.

The fact that we live in a well-ordered universe and on a planet that contains so much beauty and potential is an ongoing demonstration of God’s goodness.

Every day, we’re recipients of God’s good gifts. Indirectly, through all that God has embedded in His creation, like the ability to communicate, and through the advancements we’ve made in tending His creation, like listening to music that stirs our hearts. We’re also direct beneficiaries of His goodness as God answers our prayers, often doing far more than we could ever ask or imagine, when God leads us to repentance, forgives our sins as we confess them to Him, protects us from danger or supports us as we experience trials, and supplies us with unending resources to live life well for Him. That’s our good God.

This amazing story from my friend Jackie demonstrates a thankful spirit even when life gets tough:

I was in a serious car accident the day of our 15th wedding anniversary.  To make a long story short, someone carelessly bombed out of a driveway across two lanes of traffic, trying to make a left turn around a transport parked next to the curb, and "forgot" there might be someone on the other side of that truck that he couldn't see.  

He hit me on the passenger side of my car - thankfully I was alone! - and shoved me across the yellow line into oncoming traffic...and my little Neon went into, and under, the front of another tractor trailer.  

When my car stopped, which was a miracle in itself at 55 km/hr, what was left of the front end of my car was pushed up to my knees. The grill of the truck, which broke my windshield and bathed me in glass, was close enough for me to see my reflection.

Why am I telling you this, you may ask?  Not to invite you to a funeral, or to be melodramatic...but because I felt compelled to share what God did for me in that moment that everyone dreads, when your life hangs in the balance (and I had time to see the transport coming and think, "Uh, oh, is it my time, God?").  

We want everyone to know what God is capable of, in one of those rare times that you get to see it firsthand.  By the grace of God, I walked away from my car (after they got me out) and rode with my husband to the hospital. That night, I came home to my own bed with no heart problems, no fractures and only a few, tiny glass cuts.

So this Thanksgiving is an opportunity for us to celebrate God's sovereignty, protection and grace once again.  We know that He could have chosen for it to end differently, and that still wouldn't have changed the truth of His love or provision for us...

How can we be thankful, like Jackie, even when life goes sideways?

One way is to believe that God is God. He is sovereign (Psa. 93). That doesn’t mean that bad things won’t happen to us. However, we can trust that God’s ultimate purposes will prevail. 

It was Christmas and we were expecting our second child. The pregnancy was not going well and we ended up losing the baby. We were devastated. Was God still good in the midst of this painful loss?

Flip back a few thousand years to the city of Jerusalem. The Israelites had lost their homeland. The Babylonians had destroyed their temple and their beloved city. Many Jews were forcibly taken to Babylon as captives. Yet, after many years in captivity, King Cyrus granted the Jews permission to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple.

After laying the temple foundation, the priests and Levites sang to the Lord: “He is good; his love to Israel endures forever” (Ezra 3:11). Despite the hardships they had experienced, the Israelites rejoiced that God was good through it all.

Tragedies happen. Life is sometimes unfair. Yet, God’s goodness and love remain. Yes, God is good – all of the time.