Knowing the One True God
God is good no matter what happens... He is the source of all goodness!
by Gini Crawford, MSW
www.BecauseOfGod.com
4/16/2010
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Tuesday, January 12, 2010 a 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti. They fear over 200,000 people were killed. Their infrastructure, their homes, schools, and businesses were leveled. It was hard to get food and clean water, so people were starving. After several months the situation is still bad in Haiti. God is sovereign over everything, so He could have stopped the earthquake. So why didn’t He?
The Bible tells us God is good, and what He does is good!
You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees. Psalms 119:68 (NIV)
Yet, we all know an earthquake that is 7.0 is never good from a human standpoint! It kills and destroys!
Since God allows things that are difficult and even devastating, this makes us think and feel God’s decisions are frightening and insensitive. During these times, we can doubt whether He really is good. In fact trusting that God is good can be quite impossible from time to time, from a human perspective. A friend of mine was raped. She struggled and still does concerning whether God is really good. She had asked God to protect her from the guy as he held her down. I know God understands her struggle because He knows all things. I know, He isn’t thinking, “how dare she does not think of Me as good.” God is understanding and kind. We are more demanding towards people who are suffering than God is. Remember, He died for us when we were against Him (Isaiah 53 and Ephesians 2:1-9).
- When hard things happen in your life, do you doubt God’s goodness? I know I have at times.
Before I discuss God and His characteristic of good, I feel I need to deal with the hard question - how can God be good since He allows suffering? I believe we won’t know the answer to this fully until we get to heaven. Yet, let me share six Biblical principles that will help you, as they have helped me, to understand God and why being good, He allows suffering.
I.) God’s decisions aren’t made by finite human reasoning but are made through His characteristics of being all-knowing, wise, eternal, merciful, just, always present, loving, and so on. All suffering needs to be looked at from an eternal perspective, realizing something awful might look like God is not good in this world, but in eternity it will. Frankly I have wondered if some of the worst situations will turn out to be the most beautiful when we see them from eternity’s perspective - what they accomplished for us and others.
For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 NASB®
Paul wrote the above passage. Paul suffered great hardships in his service for God. So for Paul to call his suffering, momentary and light, shows us he understood eternity and what it offered him, and God’s good in suffering. The eternal perspective Paul talked about in 1 Corinthians 7:31 sustained him in the midst of the great sufferings that filled his ministry.
…For this world as we know it will soon pass away. (NLT)
- Read Proverbs 3:5-6 and 2 Corinthians 1:2-11 also 11:23-29 and 1 Peter 2:21-25. Paul suffered quite a bit, but he realized God could comfort him, if he would put his trust in Him. Have you felt God’s comfort in your suffering? If you haven’t, maybe you are not relying on God to get you through your trial. Read Luke 11:9-13 and Romans 8:26-28. I can get myself so upset or worried about a situation that I forget to seek God’s Spirit for help. Can you relate? Read Romans 5:3-5, Hebrews 12:4-11 and James 1:2-3. Suffering has benefits! What are they from these passages? Have you seen growth in your own life through suffering? I have in mine!
II.) God did not create us for pain and suffering, but for contentment and peace! In Genesis 2 and 3, it is obvious that sin brought suffering and devastation into creation that was created to be very good! We need to remember, God doesn’t like it when we are suffering. In John 11:33-35, Jesus (God in flesh.) wept when He saw, and felt firsthand what the agony of death did to us. God mourns over our suffering, even the suffering our personal sin brings (Hosea 11).
III.) Quite a bit of our suffering is caused by others sinning against us. Yes, God could stop that person from hurting you, but where would He draw the line in stopping people’s free will? God in His sovereignty gave us the gift of freedom of will, and doesn’t water it down through constant intervening.
- Read Psalm 109:1-5. We have all had people who hurt us, even people who supposedly love us. What do you do when you are hurt by a person? Read Proverbs 10:12, Luke 6:35-36, and 1 John 4:20-21. It is humanly impossible to love some people, but God can help you to love them. Love doesn’t mean letting the person sin against you. Sin is destructive for the person doing it as well as hurtful for the one receiving (Micah 7:5-8).
IV.) God set up the laws of nature at creation to work in a precise and prefect manner. Unfortunately, when these laws were burdened with sin, awful effects started happening such as earthquakes, floods, droughts, volcanoes, etc. (Romans 8:19-21). Could God intervene and stop the effects of sin? Of course He could, but He allows the effects of sin to play out. Though I believe God does intervene sometimes! We just do not understand or notice His intervening at times. Here are some examples from my life of God intervening: My husband could have died in the automobile accident when he totaled his car as a teenager, but miraculously he wasn’t even hurt. Years ago our kids were walking ahead of my husband and I, and a very drunk driver swerved and missed our children by feet. (I still think about how our kids could have been killed that day, as we stood helpless.) What if the world wasn’t helping Haiti? Remember the goodness anyone has and does is because we are all created in God’s image. God most definitely leads Christians but He also moves non-Christians to do His will, which is good. Without God, none of us would do good.
The Lord looks down from heaven on the entire human race; he looks to see if anyone is truly wise, if anyone seeks God. But no, all have turned away; all have become corrupt. No one does good, not a single one! Psalms 14:2-3 (NLT)
V.) God uses suffering for good (Romans 8:28-32), not just our good but other’s good too. A situation that is so awful can have a positive result, such as a murderer dying in the earthquake. A good example of this in the Bible is, in Genesis 50:20 when Joseph says to his brothers,
"And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. NASB®
VI.) God’s goodness is wrapped in His characteristic of love. God loves us and He would never allow us to suffer for the heck of it or just to be mean to us! (Isaiah 49:14-16 and Hebrews 12:5-11) In fact God’s love for us caused Him to allow His Son Jesus to suffer for us.
… If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? ... Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. Romans 8:31-32, 35, 37 NASB®
Jesus Christ suffered for us! He did this so that the consequences of sin would be stopped, and not eternally affect us in hell. So our suffering on this earth could also bring good results (Isaiah 53).
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 NASB®
- Samaritan’s Purse update: “Churches across Haiti are experiencing spiritual revival in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake.” Give details of something good that came from your suffering or someone else’s.
For more on God and suffering link to: Why does God allow us to suffer? (Part 1) and Where are you God when I hurt? Or the silence of God (Part 2)
What does God being good mean? We need to know and understand God is the source of all goodness and a part from Him there would not be good! He created the world “good”. So anything that is good is because God created things to be good. It was Adam and Eve that brought evil into the world, by disobeying God. God commanded them not to taste of the fruit of evil.
But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” Genesis 2:16-17 (NLT)
- Read Genesis 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, and 31 also 3:1-22.
Good in the Bible is defined by the words - beautiful, delightful, pleasant, glad, precious, correct, excellent, lovely, convenient, joyful, fruitful, secure, kind, and righteous. Evil (or bad) is the opposite of the definition of good. No wonder our world is so unsettling and harsh, since much of what happens can be defined by the definition of evil!
In Luke 18:19, Jesus Christ stated that God alone is good, and the source of all goodness in the universe. Without God there would be no good!
A ruler questioned Him, saying, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. NASB®
Jesus was meaning in Luke 18, “Don’t call Me good as a teacher. This is because only God is good. I am good only because I am God.“ (John 14:9).
- Who or what do you think of when someone says, goodness? Do you feel God is good? Be honest. Read Proverbs 23:7a. Whatever you think, whether it is true or not, will lead your feelings and how you act. You need to realize your feelings are not always what the truth is. I can feel someone doesn’t like me, but in reality they are depressed and it has nothing to do with me. Read Psalm 119:68, Romans 12:2-3 and 1 Timothy 3:16-17. If you don’t feel God is good, ask Him to show you in His Word and in life, His goodness. This is so God can transform your thinking so your feelings can follow. Hopefully this devotion will change your thinking of God!
Did you realize that every good thing comes from God? That yummy donut came from God. He created flour, sugar and the know how to make good tasting things. That beautiful singing came from the talent God gave a person. That soft cotton blouse came from the cotton plant God created. The lovely sun raise that I saw yesterday was from God. That pleasant odor after the rain came from God’s creation. When someone loves you, that love came from God, because He created love. When you hold your child in your arms and feel that fulfillment, of course that child and even the good feeling came from God and so on. The goodness that is all around us is from God and only God.
So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters. Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. James 1:16-17 (NLT)
You will never find true goodness away from the Source of good – God! Because God is absolute good, He has never done or ever will do something that is not good! Even though you might think and feel what He does, isn’t good. We think and feel this way about God because of our limited perspective of what is taking place around us! You and me are bound to earthly thoughts, feelings and reasonings, while God transcends them.
When you live apart from God because of sin, you should not be surprised if life isn’t very good. If you decide to disobey God, you should expect not to find good. You won’t find true good away from God and His ways.
- Read Isaiah 59:2. If you have not believed in Jesus Christ, you are always separated from God because you are enslaved to sin. LINK TO L2 for love study As Christians, we are never separated from God because of sin! This is because Jesus’ death erased our sins as if we had never committed them. Yet, sin affects our relationship with God, like when a child disobeys his parent. Confessing or agreeing with God about our sin puts us in a close relationship with Him again. Read 1 John 1:9. Think about confession this way - confessing your sins is the easiest way God could give you to be so quickly close to Him again! Read Psalm 25:7-11 and 86:5. Since we are so loved and forgiven by God (Who is Holy and hates sin) shouldn’t we agree with Him about our sins? God’s goodness leads us away from sin.
God is as good now as when He created everything good at the beginning of time. God never changes! He is as good as when He suffered and died for you on the cross over 2,000 years ago. God is good when you have a job but God is also good when your boss says, he can not afford to keep you. God is good when your husband is faithful but He is also good when your husband cheats on you. God was good when He allowed my friend’s son to be born dead, as well as He is good when my friend as the years have gone on, has birthed four healthy children.
Knowing God’s good plans for you are being accomplished (whether you feel or think they are), can lead you to trusting God even when the going gets mighty rough. Trusting God leads to peace, contentment, and strength when the world is in tumult around you.
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33 (NIV)
- Read Numbers 23:19, 1 Samuel 15:29 also Hebrews 12:5-11. Since God is always good how should you think when you are going through a trial? Read Nahum 1:7. God is good so shouldn’t you go to your Good Father when you are in times of trouble? He wants you to take refuge in Him. Read Psalm 138:8, Isaiah 40:31, Jeremiah 29:11-13, John 3:16-18, 10:7-11 and Romans 8:28. God wants you to have a good life in Him! How do you have a good life in Him?
Life Application: Make a list or journal on what you have learned about God and His being good. Then write out what your knowledge of God being good means to you, and what it will motivate you to do (applying it to your life).
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