Tuesday, January 7th, 2025
Oftentimes, our ability to see God as a good God is jaded by our imperfections and limitations. What if the loss of a job allows us to transition to a homemaker and a homeschool teacher? What if countless sleepless nights push us to cry out to a God we barely talked to when sleep was easy to come by? What if a health diagnosis brings us into a circle of people ripe and ready to hear the gospel? What if financial lack brings us to a place of complete surrender and faith in God? What if a strained family relationship forces us to stop trying to control everything? What if offending someone requires us to please God more than man?
While it is true that none of these events initially feel good, if we serve a God that is good, do we believe that He can eventually make them good? Because we live in an imperfect world, bad things do happen. But because we serve a good God, if we let Him, He will make something good out of everything. If it isn’t good, then perhaps He hasn’t yet finished this part of His Masterpiece.
The quicker we can humble ourselves and look through eyes of God’s goodness, the sooner we will settle in and let Him show us the way. It’s pride that makes us think that everything has to make sense to us or happen on our timing. It’s pride that makes us think that bad things shouldn’t happen to us in the first place. It’s pride that makes us think that God doesn’t care or that He has left our side. It’s pride that kept the Jews from seeing the goodness of Jesus. John 10:32-33 says:
32 Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?”
33 The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.”
They couldn’t see His goodness because they were too concerned with what they thought should be happening. The God they thought they knew was nothing more than a list of rules and regulations that they couldn’t deviate from.
Final Thoughts…
Lord, above all we ask for humility. We don’t ever want to think that we know how the events in our lives are supposed to go. We want the ability to still believe that You are a good God even if the roof leaks, our car breaks down or our bank account is at zero. We want to trust in Your goodness even if everyone else calls us crazy for doing so. We want a faith that can find diamonds hidden all throughout the deepest darkest valley. Help us not to trust in our own measure of goodness but in your overflowing, never-emptied, immeasurable goodness.