I was with a friend recently and I complimented her on something she had. Her response was, “Yes, isn’t God good!” I agreed, but something really bothered me about that. I couldn’t figure out what is was, so I just filed it in my ‘ponder on this’ box. Then, seemingly unrelated, I picked up the Bible and started reading in Daniel. The story was about how Daniel’s people were not living a proper lifestyle and were now going to be punished for it. Daniel prayed to God for mercy and he says in Daniel 9:18 “…We do not make request of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy.” Now, something about this line made me read it over and over, so I put it in my ‘ponder on this’ box.
About a week later, I was raking, yes, raking and it came to me. The Holy Spirit nudged me with these two events to teach me something. God is good, merciful, loving, healing, faithful, patient, and more, but it is unrelated to our experiences here on earth. Because, if we attach God’s goodness to something good that we have, then we have to attach a negative adjective to Him when things don’t go well. Is God good because we have a beautiful house, nice car, faithful spouse, smart kids, no, God is good, period. Is God not good because your life is filled with pain, suffering, loss, hunger, loneliness, no, God is still good. Not that I’m lessening the horror of some peoples lives, but God is with them in their suffering since He will never leave us. God is just waiting for His children (us) to do something about the pain and suffering. Sure we can’t cure all the ills of the world, but we can do our part, use our gifts, give a smile, a helping hand. We sometimes forget the ripple effect of one small action, we sometimes forget the earth moving power of God when we allow Him to use us.
God can perform miracles, but it seems to me that He prefers to use us to answer prayers. One time I got a group e-mail asking for prayer for a sick woman who didn’t have enough money for her bills. When I read it I felt the Holy Spirit opened my mind to the fact that we as Christians aren’t suppose to sit around waiting for God to take care of all these problems, we are to be His hands and feet and take care of it. God’s biggest complaint through the Bible was when believers did not take care of the poor. So what were these Christians doing sending out prayer request for a miracle to have this woman’s bills paid. WE are suppose to pay her bills, WE are to visit the lonely, WE are to stand up for the ones without a voice, WE are to spread the love of God, WE are to show God’s goodness, WE are to feed the hungry.
So, God is good, we just have to surrender to His will and allow His goodness to shine through us!
