God is good all the time. All the time God is good.A preacher friend of mine likes to say this statement. It’s nice sentiment. A positive thought. Certainly the psalmist agrees. God is good forever. Forever God is good. God loves forever. Forever God loves. It’s great poetry.
But what about when the rhyme doesn’t flow? Or when life throws a curve? Or circumstance stalls a dream? Where is God when everything hurts? When nothing goes as planned? When the party’s over? How can God be good when bad stuff happens? And if He is so loving why doesn’t He stop the pain, problems and pitfalls?
I don’t know.
But I’ve learned to be thankful anyway. Sometimes it takes a problem to reveal the possibility. Sometimes our hurts are what produce healing. Sometimes life’s bumps and bruises are the testimony of God’s providence and protection. It takes rain to create a rainbow. Isn’t it true that clouds set the most stunning sunsets afire?
That’s why God is always good. It’s because His love truly does endure. Sometimes it just takes a person getting knocked down by the storm, lying flat on his back, soaked to the skin and looking up before he sees the sky.
Rainbows promise a loving, eternal God is in control. With God on your side, nothing is impossible. Storms calm. Seas open. Walls fall. The dead rise. The blind see. The flood recedes. So why worry about a little rain?
After all you can’t spell “good” without seeing God in it. You just have to look.
NOTABLE QUOTABLES ON GOD’S GOODNESS:
Sometimes the Lord rides out the storm with us and other times He calms the restless sea around us. Most of all, He calms the storm inside us in our deepest inner soul. (Lloyd John Ogilvie)
Our circumstances are not an accurate reflection of God's goodness. Whether life is good or bad, God's goodness, rooted in His character, is the same. (Helen Grace Lescheid)
Why do so many Christians pray such tiny prayers when their God is so big? (Watchman Nee)
Hidden in the hollow Of His blessed hand,
Never foe can follow, Never traitor stand;
Not a surge of worry, Not a shade of care,
Not a blast of hurry Touch the Spirit there.
(Frances R. Havergal)
Father, you truly are Good. You love us forever. In this day we do not pray for the storms of life to cease but rather for Your Hand to calm the waves within our souls. Give us Peace that passes all understanding. Jesus, you truly are Good. You stretched your hands across the sky to build a bridge home for this wayward soul. Give me Strength to keep walking. Spirit, you truly are Good. You comfort and console, inspire and instruct. Give me Wisdom to never allow my life to be defined by temporal answers to eternal questions. Thank you for the storms and turn my eyes to the Rainbow in the sunset. Amen.
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