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The Glory of God's Goodness
From My Blog Archives: Doubting the Goodness of God
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June 24, 2008
Dear Friends:julie2
 
Trusting in the goodness of God can be a challenge, especially when we are facing circumstances troubling us or those we love. This edition of Dogwood Digest focuses on the goodness of God. When the world around us starts falling apart, knowing He can be nothing but good will enable our troubled souls to rest in Him.
 
Please use the link at the very bottom of this email and forward it on to a friend who could use some encouragement! Thanks!
 
Love, Julie
The Glory of God's Goodness

In the days following 9-11, when the teachers in my school gathered for faculty devotions, we often related stories we had heard of people who had 9-11miraculously escaped injury in the terrorist attacks. One person knew someone who worked in the very offices of the Pentagon which were hit by the plane. He was out of the office at the time of impact and escaped injury, while every other person on his staff perished. Someone else knew a friend who missed the New York City bus and therefore was late to work, causing her to be outside the twin towers when they were hit. As each person related another miraculous delivery, they remarked on the goodness of God. I couldn't help but wonder how the thousands of people grieving a loved one lost in the attacks felt about the goodness of God at that time.
 
We tend to equate the idea of God's goodness with His acting in ways we feel is appropriate. The truth of the matter is that God is always good, whether He is doing what pleases us or not. He cannot be anything but good. It is an essential and uncompromising piece of His character.
 
When the Israelites were in the desert, it didn't take long for them to reveal their true colors. While Moses was up on the mountain receiving the Law written on tablets of stone by the finger of God, the people were down in the valley below fashioning an idol out of gold to replace God as their object of worship. In a short period of time they had already rejected the One who brought them safely across the Red Sea on dry ground.
 
God punished the stiff-necked Israelites with swift judgment. Three thousand men fell that day. Moses spoke to God and admitted the people's sin. He pleaded for God to forgive and not abandon them. God responded by promising His presence would remain with Moses and the people. Possibly needing further assurance, Moses made a request of God: "I pray You, show me Your glory!"
 
God responded, "I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion." (Exodus 33:19) Did you note the change in nouns? Moses asked to see God's glory. God told him he would be shown His goodness. In other words, by showing His goodness to Moses, God would be revealing His glory. The two words are used interchangeably again a few verses later.
 
Moses was about to see the essence of the glory of God: His goodness. But God first qualified the idea of goodness for Moses. Yes, God was totally good. Yet He would pick and choose who would benefit from His compassion and grace and who would not. The goodness of God did not stand in opposition to His justice, wisdom, and righteousness. All of these existed in perfect harmony together in God. 
 
When difficult circumstances come into our lives, they make us wonder if we must choose between believing in the goodness of God or in His determination to bring glory to Himself. "My glory I will not give to another," God proclaims in Isaiah 48:11. Yet He also promises in Romans 8:28, "We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God. . ." All things. The planes careening into the twin towers, the tsunami rushing in to drag thousands out to sea, and the earthquake trapping hundreds of students under a crushing pile of rubble will all be used to bring glory to God. But at the same time He will work only toward our good using the very same circumstances. 
 
In recent days I have watched someone close to me in the agony of despair. As she attempted to serve God with all her heart in a much loved ministry, He chose to move her out of it and into a place of helplessly waiting on Him. She is sad and hurting. As I wept with her in her pain, I had to once again examine my understanding of God's goodness. I knew He would bring glory to Himself as He worked through her life. But would she somehow be cheated of benefit as He did so? Was God truly being good to her?
 
Our good and God's glory are never at odds. One does not preclude the other. They are one in the same and mutually exist in a God who loves us wholeheartedly yet unswervingly demonstrates His glory at the same time. His goodness is just another compatible dimension to the glory which is His.
From My Blog Archives
Sunday, April 13, 2008
eve serpentDoubting the Goodness of God
"The serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Genesis 3:4-5

Satan has a way of going right for the jugular. On that fateful day when He tempted Eve into the very first sin in the Garden of Eden, he used exactly the right weapon. Satan made Eve doubt God's goodness. He did this by suggesting that God's motives were not completely altruistic. The reason God made the big rule about the tree in the middle of the garden was because He didn't want Adam and Eve to rival Him. It was a command created to preserve His superiority over His creation. Eve fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.

Doubting God's goodness and wisdom is really at the root of most of our sin, I think. When we make the conscious decision to disobey Him, at the very foundation of our decision is the thought that God does not want what is in our best interests. So we go off on our own, feeding our own desire for pleasure or satisfaction. Sadly, the sin does not satisfy as we thought. It is like a mouth full of cotton candy. The pleasure quickly fades, and we are only left with the cleanup of the destruction we have caused with our cavalier actions.

When I was pregnant with my first child, I confided my fear to my mom that I would probably not make a good mother. My mom had always been so generous with my sister and I. She would rather herself go without in order to provide some thing that we wanted. "I'll never be as generous with my kids," I told her. "I am just too selfish."

Mom reassured me that I would think differently once the baby was born. "When it's your own," she told me, "It is no sacrifice."

Astonishingly, I found this to be true. Putting my children's needs before my own was almost an instinct. I understood for the first time what it was to love with no thought of getting something in return. It was enough to watch their delight over what I could give them. Their pleasure was truly my greatest pleasure.

If this could be true of this very human mother, who is most definitely sinful and faulty in her efforts at love, it must be infinitely true of our Heavenly Father, who loves us perfectly. Jesus told his disciples: "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!" (Matthew 7:11)

God takes pleasure in His people. (Psalm 149:4) He delights in providing us with good things. And He is good. All the time.

When we begin to understand His goodness and delight in us, we can begin to choose His way for us over our own plans. We can see the principles set before us in scripture which instruct us in our actions as more than a bunch of rules. Rather, they are guidelines to give us the best life possible. His desire is to give us the best of everything. While we think we know what we need, in His wisdom, He gives us what we really need. If we could just trust Him in this, we would save ourselves a whole lot of pacing around and shaking our fist. He is on our side. He knows what we need and what is best for us. We just need to trust Him.