I’m sure you’ve heard this before. “If God is so good why does He allow bad things to happen?”
Here’s the thing, I can tell you all day long that God is good but until you discover that for yourself words are just noise.
It’s like someone telling you that Portillos’ Chocolate Cake is delicious or Game of Thrones is epic or Kohl’s has the best sales.
Until you go and eat or see and experience for yourself – firsthand – you’ll never know.
You’ll only have thoughts, ideas and assumptions of what it’s like to have a personal relationship with Jesus based on what you hear and see (none of which is represented well because Jesus followers still aren’t perfect newsflash duh).
I remember one time I felt God. I was in a church (although you don’t have to be in a church to feel God – He’s everywhere). My face got hot and I started sweating. I knew it was God tugging at my heart, asking me once again – TRUST ME and FOLLOW ME.
My response went something like this…….in my head…….very sassy – Fine! Then picture me stomping away because God successfully put a ding in my armor of pride.
Then I said – “You have a lot of work to do because I’m not entirely sure you are real – and if you are real then you need to change my heart and help me believe because I’m a really good person and shouldn’t have to do this.”
Very sincere.
It’s a vivid memory but what followed was a slow and hazy pursuit of God.
Fast forward 30 years because who has time to read my life story and here’s my point.
How do you find out if God is good?
*You get to know Him. Personally. For yourself. Not through a church, your Mom or what the media portrays. You can talk to Him. Really. In fact He’s waiting for you.
*Find out what the Bible says about Him. For yourself. The Bible is a gift to us and it reveals God’s love for humanity and His plan of salvation through Jesus. It must be read and understood as a whole not pulling out verse by verse. No lie, it takes effort and can be difficult to understand – hence the pressing in to discover for yourself part. It’s like any book – if you picked up a novel, flipped to a page, read two paragraphs and said “I don’t know what’s happening in this book? Why is she running through the woods? This is pointless”. Of course you’re confused you can’t just read two or three sentences and expect to accurately understand the whole book!!!!!
The last one I’m going to share with you will be offensive. To some. To people like me who have a hard time surrendering or believing that they need to surrender to God.
*To know that God is good you must accept HIS SOVEREIGNTY AND LORDSHIP in your life. Ouch.
You can start seeking God right now but until you come to that place in your walk of faith where you can say – GOD I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN!!!! and choose to still bow your knee and believe and trust that He is Good despite what happens in this corrupt evil world, you will always wonder and doubt God’s goodness.
But it’s in that point of surrender and expression of TRUST where the “GOOD” stuff happens.
It’s not easy or for the faint of heart. It takes courage and moxie to humble yourself and say GOD I TRUST YOU even when storms rage, people die and evil exists. But it is entirely possible to know that God is good.
It’s GOOD FRIDAY and Easter weekend.
The perfect time to find out if GOD IS GOOD.
Till the next time,
Julie B.
***A great source of hope to help sort through these very real questions is a book by Laura Story called “When God Doesn’t Fix It”.
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