In the last post, I mentioned how the Lord has been teaching me about His goodness. It has been a very long and hard lesson, but one that has come to be very sweet. I think it’s really impossible to try to explain the goodness of the Lord or to even recount what He has been teaching me in this regard, but I would like to share even just a morsel of this deep truth that He has been showing me.
You are good and do good;
teach me your statutes. Psalm 119:68
The Lord confronted me last year with my disbelief in His goodness. I would not have actually admitted that I did not trust the Lord’s goodness, but my troubled thoughts and attitude revealed otherwise. It all started with a thought, a question, a doubt about the goodness of God (from the enemy no doubt). Instead of dismissing the lie immediately, however, I pondered it. I did not obey the Scripture about taking thoughts captive (2 Corinthians 10:5), and, as a result, allowed the thought to take root. The Lord, however, was quick to bring His Word. When I went to church that weekend, the sermon title was, “God is Good and Does Good,” from the psalm above. I was like, “Of course that is the message this weekend.” Then I started doing a study with a friend through Nancy Leigh DeMoss’s book, Lies Women Believe and the Truth that Sets Them Free, and the first lie she addressed in the book was, “God is not really good. If He were, He would…” Do you see the kindness (and goodness) of the Lord in this? He seen my struggle and sent His Truth speedily to meet me. I would like to say that that was the end of doubting His goodness, but it was only the beginning. Since that time, I have been tempted over and over to believe that the Lord is not good – or, at least, that He is not good to me. And since that time, the Lord has continually convicted me, pursued me, and taken me deeper and deeper into the truth of His goodness.
I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul. Jeremiah 32:41
The Lord’s goodness is a fundamental truth. It is important to believe that the Lord is both sovereign and good, and losing sight of one or the other makes for some pretty dark nights of the soul. Admittedly, there have been several times when I had considered walking away from everything, thinking that I just could not do this anymore. But you know what? The Lord never lets go of His own (2 Timothy 2:13). Furthermore, where else would I go? Jesus Christ alone has the words of Life and Truth (John 6:68; 14:6). I have seen and experienced that there is no person or thing or belief system that satisfies and sustains and transforms and renews like He does. He is life (Colossians 3:4). So, recently, the Lord has brought to my attention that I should not even allow questioning His goodness to be an option (which sounds like a no brainer). Up until now that is exactly what I have been doing, but, instead, Jesus calls me to trust Him. And that’s exactly what it all comes down to, doesn’t it? Trust the Lord. Trust His Word. What He says is true, no matter how things look on the outside. And Scripture is clear that God alone is good. He not only does good (Psalm 119:68); He not only gives good (James 1:17), but He IS good.
And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. Mark 10:18
Goodness is intricate to God’s nature. [By the way, Jesus is not saying that He Himself is not good. He is pointing out that only God is innately good, so for Jesus to be called good means that He is equal with God, which, of course, He is.] The problem is that we define goodness based on our own ideologies and limited perspective. We want to know why tragic things happen and why our desires are not met. Why questions are not bad in and of themselves, but the truth is we don’t always get to know why. Answers are a privilege, not a right. So when answers don’t come, we are quick to blame God and question His character.
God is absolute righteousness, love, goodness, and justice. Most errors related to this issue [ascribing evil to God] occur because of our human tendency to impose an external standard–a human construction of goodness–upon God. But good does not so much define God as God defines good. – Dr. Mohler’s blog post, “The Goodness of God and the Reality of Evil”
I love that: good does not define God, but God defines good. Reading this was like an ah-ha moment for me. God is good and therefore He defines it, and He reveals what goodness is through His perfect and inerrant Word. Over and over again, the Bible says that, “The Lord is good, for His steadfast love endures forever” (Psalm 100:5; 106:1; 2 Chronicle 5:13; Ezra 3:11; Jeremiah 33:11, etc.). Scripture proclaims this truth over and over because we need to hear it over and over.
Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you,
in the sight of the children of mankind!
In the cover of your presence you hide them. Psalm 31:19
The Lord brought this verse to my mind this week as I was pondering His goodness. I love the three ways the psalmist describes the goodness of Christ in this verse. First, he says that God’s goodness is abundant. It is not limited; it is infinite like God is. Furthermore, it is stored up for God’s people (notice the qualifier). This shows His intention to do His people good. Even when life is difficult, God has goodness stored up for us, which may or may not be poured out in this lifetime, but it will most definitely be revealed in full when Christ returns. Finally, God works out this goodness for His people (again, notice the qualifier – this promise is not for all people). This reminds me of Romans 8:28 where the Apostle Paul says that God works all things (both good and bad) together for good for those who love God and are chosen in Christ. So God is working out His goodness in the lives of those who have trusted in Christ. And His goodness is most gloriously displayed in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God worked His goodness in the midst of gruesome and unspeakable events as Jesus Christ, the only perfect man to walk this earth, was betrayed, mistreated, beaten, mocked, falsely accused, misunderstood, slaughtered, and resurrected so that God could offer salvation to sinful human, among whom there is no one good, not even one (Romans 3:12). So God made His Son Jesus Christ (who is perfectly good and righteous) to be sin, so that in Christ we (who are unrighteousness and in whom no goodness is found) might become the righteousness of God. Indeed, Psalm 145:9 rings true: “The Lord is good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made.”
Over the past few weeks, the Lord has been helping me slim-line my priorities and weed out distractions. Mainly this has been in regards to how I spend my time and the influences I allow into my life. I am already pretty strict about what movies and other media influences I consume, but He has been calling me to an even higher standard in this regard. I don’t mean this is a legalistic way, but in a way that frees me more to serve God and focus on Him. The Bible tells us that not all things are beneficial for us and that we are to fling away all distractions as we try to run the race that Christ has marked out for us (1 Corinthians 10:23). I have a very vivid imagination and images stick with me, so it is important for me to filter what I watch and listen to and read. For example, I watched Shudder Island with a friend and couldn’t shake some of the images for a week. Some things that may not bother others, will hinder me, but, in general, I think it’s important that we do not take in things that might grieve the Holy Spirit. It’s also important that we do not spend too much time gorging ourselves on the world’s entertainment – both for the sake our of walk with Christ and for the fact that time is short, so let’s not waste it.
This all began with Lent. After debating with myself, I decided to give up sugar. It’s not because I’m a junk-food junkie, but eating sweets had become a HABIT. Partly motivated by wanting to be healthier and partly because I wanted to give up something for the Lord for Lent, I denied myself chocolate and frozen yogurt and every other savory treat. And after a few weeks, I no longer wanted these things. Even when Easter came, I didn’t feel like I had to have dessert (though I did). The desire for something sweet was put back in its rightful place. It was no longer a habit or a must have or a craving, but simply an occasional treat. Now, by the Lord’s grace, I only have dessert when it is something I really like, not just to have it.
In nearly the same time period, I recognized another habit: Facebook. I wasn’t on there for long periods of time, but I did get in the HABIT of checking it daily. So even though I spent maybe a max of 30 minutes on it, it was distracting. So I took a break. I disabled my account for three weeks. And you know what’s pitiful? Immediately after I disabled my account, I was a little sad. Geez. That’s exactly why I needed to take a break.
Even though these things are rather small, they were distractions. And the discipline the Lord helped me learn in these areas has spilled over into other areas of my life, so that my time and energy can flow more fully and freely into what matters – Jesus and people. Prayer and Bible reading and ministry and fellowship have taken on a new and sweeter importance. The emails can wait and so can eating for that matter – only one thing is necessary and that will not be taken away from me (Luke 10:42). :)
All this is a small reflection of the biblical principle that sometimes God withholds the good we think we need so that He can give us the greater good that we truly need: Himself. A lot of time I lose sight of this truth, but the Bible is clear that the Lord has nothing but good intentions toward His own.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
the Lord bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does he withhold
from those who walk uprightly. Psalm 84:11
I am currently reading Dr. Moore’s book, Tempted and Tried, about the temptations of Christ. In talking about the first temptation, when the devil tempted Jesus to turn stones into bread to satisfy His hunger, Dr. Moore pointed out that one of the lies undergirding this temptation was that God was withholding something good, which was Jesus’ basic need and desire for food. Jesus wouldn’t buy this. He knew that His heavenly Father was all He needed and He would wait for Him to provide. This lie isn’t a new one. It is the same one that the devil sold Eve. He told her that God didn’t want her to eat of the forbidden fruit because He didn’t want her to become like Him. In essence, He was withholding good from her. So she bought the lie, ate the fruit, along with Adam, and plunged humanity into its present chaos. The truth is that God knows our needs better than we do, gives us what we need, and never withholds good from those who are in Christ. The Lord has been teaching me a lot about His goodness and His disposition to do His children good, but more on that in the next post.
