The Goodness of God

In Genesis 32:12, God reminds Jacob that “He will surely do him good”. In Jeremiah 29:11, God reminds his people of his plans for them “plans to prosper and not to harm, plans to give you hope and a future.” These promises to Jacob and Jeremiah and countless others extend to us as Paul reminds us in the New Testament “he will never leave us or forsake us so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper.”

“He will surely do us good” is a short promise, (easy for us to commit to memory) and broad in its scope; it covers every fear, every anxiety. It instructs us to cast all our care upon him for he cares for us and reminds us that they seek the Lord will not want for any good thing.

What an encouraging series of texts and yet we need to understand them in the light of our own experience if we are going to make any sense of them. What are we to make of those who suffer hardship, of those bowed down with various illnesses, of those whose most significant relationships are deteriorating into hurt and emotional pain, of those who struggle in real distress (i.e., all of us at one time or another)? The world looks on and mocks the believer saying “where is this God who will always do you good, where is he now?” Gideon struggled with this saying “if God be with us, why then has all this evil befallen us”. If we are honest with ourselves, even in our own lives, we can look at hardship and be tempted to think, where is the goodness of God in this?

It is at this point that we must trust in the wisdom and judgment of God and not our own – his ways are not our ways nor are his thoughts our thoughts. We can be shortsighted and easily influenced by appearances – we don’t always know what is good for us and we usually want the easy path. In addition, we don’t know the beginning from the end. We don’t always know the reasons why certain things happen but we can know this. Trials are designed to grow us, to conform us into the image of Christ, and that the testing of our faith produces steadfastness and ultimately the crown of life.

When our kids were young, we found some caterpillars that would eventually become monarch butterflies. We kept them in a glass tank and gathered fresh greens for them to eat as they prepared for transformation. As each caterpillar formed a chrysalis, we waited like expectant parents, anxious for delivery. As time went by, three of the four split open and we watched in amazement as the emerging creature struggled to free itself from its cramped surroundings. This struggle was hard to watch but necessary as it forced blood through the tiny veins in the wings and allowed them to spread and form properly. The fourth chrysalis appeared to struggle more than the others and so we “helped” by snipping open a section of the chrysalis (forgive us - we were young parents and had not read “Dr. Spock’s Guide to Raising Butterflies”). Lacking the need to struggle through the trial of freeing itself, the fourth insect emerged as a shriveled caricature of what it was designed to be. The wings never spread, it never flew, it never reached its potential, in fact, it died. King David didn’t say “it is good for me that I have prospered and had a life of ease”, instead he said “it is good for me that I have been afflicted” because of what it accomplished in his life. Are we able to say that about the circumstances in which we find ourselves? We can if we believe the promise that God will surely do us good.
So when we think about this promise “He will surely do us good” let’s focus on four characteristics of God that are revealed in this statement (with thanks to William Jay).

The first is his sufficiency – He is able to do us good. Nothing is too hard for the Lord, he rules the wind and the waves, and he owns the cattle on a thousand hills. In him is everlasting strength, there is no enemy he can’t conquer.

The second is his inclination – He is disposed to do us good. He loves us with an everlasting love; we are the apple of his eye. If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it, if he had a wallet, your picture would be in it. His justice was satisfied at the cross; there is nothing left but his love for us.

The third is his commitment – he is bound to do us good. We have not only His word but an oath sworn by him and confirmed by his death on the cross.

The fourth is that he has already done us good – He has sacrificed his perfect son on our behalf to purchase you and me. “He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things”.

Let’s focus on this truth as we head into 2013, with whatever it brings our way. God desires to do us good with all his heart and all his soul and we can find great rest in that.

Walking the journey with you,
Ross