One of the most
difficult tasks that the Christian is called to do, is to trust the wisdom and
goodness of God when everything seems to be going wrong. Satan, the enemy of
our soul, delights to bring suspicion into the mind of the believer. And if we
are honest, we are all guilty of doubting the judgment of God when faced with
certain adversities. We wonder, if God
is good, then why has He allowed this to happen? If God is good, why didn’t He
stop this, or interfere like I asked Him to? This is a common battle within the
heart of every child of God. This is where faith enters and reminds us of the
goodness of God, and causes us to trust His heart when we can’t trace His
hand.
Psalms 107:1 “O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is
good: for his mercy endureth for ever.” How terrifying it would be, if God were
All-powerful, but wasn’t also good. Many men have been corrupted by power.
Countless lives have been lost and great harm has been done, by the wicked
hands of fallen men who have had great authority but were not governed by decency.
It would be frightening, to consider a god who had supreme power, and was not
concerned with virtue or integrity. This god, might arbitrarily crush us or
randomly punish us. But our God, the God of the Bible is a good God, of immutable
goodness. He is eternally good. Psalms 52:1 “the
goodness of God endureth continually."
His very essence
is good. His disposition is good. His being is good. God is the very source of
goodness. James 1:17 says that every good gift
and every perfect gift comes down from above. When you remove God from the
schoolhouse, you removed goodness from the schoolhouse. When God is excluded
from the courthouse, then goodness is excluded. And easily can we see the
results of this, because men, by nature, are not good.
Romans 3:10-12 As it is
written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that
understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good,
no, not one.
These verses do
not mean that men aren’t capable of doing good and moral things. Soldiers die
on the battlefield for their country. Mothers love and nourish their children.
Yet, when it comes to pleasing God and the spiritual state of man, there is
none inherently good, no not one. Apart
from Christ, men have no spiritual comeliness. We should agree with the Apostle
Paul and say: “for I know that in me, that is, in my flesh; dwelleth no good
thing.” Any spiritual goodness that dwells within us, is merely because we have
been made partakers of the Divine nature of God, by the indwelling of His
Spirit.
Once I knew a man
who had a dog that was born deaf. Many suggested that he should have the dog
put down, because it would not be able to take care of itself and would always
be in danger. He decided to keep the dog and he worked with it, and learned to
communicate with him by hand signals. He could wave his hands in a certain way
to get the dog to come, or sit. The remarkable thing about the dog was that even
though he was born deaf and had never heard a sound in its life, still that dog
would bark. When strangers would approach, or when it saw another animal, the
dog would bark. No one had to teach it, or train it to do this, it was his
nature.
In like manner, no
one had to show God how to be good. God is naturally good. It is His nature to
be good. He is good all by Himself. We have to teach children how to be good.
How to conduct themselves, how to behave, yet, goodness springs from God
because He is inherently good. This is yet another way, in which God is so much
higher and holier than we.
In the midst of trials and adversity, we must remember,
God is good. When life seems to be spiraling out of control, we must have faith
that God is good. God is good all the time, and all the time,
God is good.
Pastor Lewis Kiger
Memorial Heights Baptist Church
svdbygrace2@roadrunner.com
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