Do I Really Believe God Is Good?

When I receive the diagnosis that confirms my body is falling apart. When I am in the throes of addiction without any tangible path out. When I get a phone call that someone I love is in the emergency room and might not make it. When getting out of bed is too difficult and getting through the day feels impossible.

When everything in my life appears to be anything but good, do I really believe that God and His plans are good?

Sometimes, I must admit that the honest answer feels like no. Sometimes everything in my mind and flesh says there is absolutely no goodness here.

Here, however, it is still possible to indulge in the unknown, inexplicable reaches of God’s mercy and love. Here, we can cry out Lord, I see no good, I feel no good, but my spirit trusts in You beyond what I can see and feel. We can acknowledge our frail flesh, we can confess our doubts, and we can still cling to the very robes of our almighty Savior – through tears, cries for help, and wordless groans.

• With one eye on Christ as He hangs on the cross forsaken and bleeding out, our other eye on Christ as He sits at the right hand of the Father, we can endure with complete hope and expectation.

His crucifixion is the reminder that Jesus is with us in our suffering – behind, beside, and ahead of us in every moment. His resurrection is the certainty of our future glory, the motivation for our unceasing hope. In the time between our worldly birth and eternity to come, we battle to remain in the presence of the One we will be reunited with soon. 

Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. — Matthew 11:28-30

His invitation is simple: Come. He does not require that we come polished, presentable, and put together. His call is for the weary and burdened, the empty and destitute, those that know they are not able and long to rest in the arms of One who is.

This, perhaps among all the painfully eternal lessons taught by suffering, is a truth that we must rely on: We can still honor God in our doubts, uncertainties, questions, despair, anger, sadness, and the complete absence of worldly evidence. What good is it to act as if they are not there, coming to the Lord with a forced smile and concealed limp? Instead, we rejoice that we can enter God’s presence wounded, bleeding, weeping, crawling because we have no energy to stand, and exhale the word help as we fall at His feet.

Why? Because we know He will reach down from His heavenly throne, He will pick us up in His powerful hands, He will hold us tight to His chest, and He will do as He promises to do. 

He will take all things and work them together for good. Because He is good and His goodness is not limited by our capacity to feel, see, or understand it.

We can bring the fullness of our human brokenness into the fullness of His divine perfection as a humble, sober form of worship. 

My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. — Psalm 51:17

This intersection – our humanity and His boundlessness - is the gateway to God’s power being made perfect in our weakness. In the same breath, we can express the agony of our worldly circumstances and sing praise to our all-knowing, loving Creator who promises to use those circumstances for our good and His glory.

It is not our responsibility to bridge the gap from our limited understanding to God’s unlimited sovereignty, hoping we are given an answer or outcome that satisfies our desire for control and clarity. Instead, it is our joy to recognize that the gap exists, submitting to the Lord in the unknown, dark, heavy moments with vulnerability, and relying on His presence as we press on.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit. — Psalm 34:16

The Creator of the universe, Maker of Heaven and earth – every universe and galaxy – is close to… the brokenhearted and crushed in spirit. Is there a greater promise than this one? In all His vastness, eternality, and power, He chooses to draw near to those that are hurting. And His promise is His proximity.

The presence of God Himself in the midst of our despair, pain, confusion, and suffering is the greatest picture of His goodness. So, even when things don’t look or feel good, we can fall into the arms of the Almighty and still know that it is, because He is.

Written for Devotionals Daily by Ben Locke, author of In Our Suffering, Lord Be Near. 

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Your Turn

Are you in the middle of something painful today? God is there with you. He’s close. He draws nearer to you than your own breath. Fall into His arms today! ~ Devotionals Daily