God is good....

God is good....that's the topic up for discussion in a group I'm part of early Friday morning. We have been working through a book written by A.W. Tozer on the character of God. The chapter this week was titled "The Goodness of God." It's a part of Christian theology that many have used to "prove" there is no God. It goes something like this, if God is good AND all powerful then how can evil exist? It's a question that is easily answered, but has been used to bully many weak believers who don't know what to say to such a proposition.

In our discussion this morning about God's goodness it was clear that, for the Christian, this is an assumed truth. We believe God is good and out of his goodness flows all we enjoy, but there is one thing that brings pause....

The pause comes when we add to our initial proposition- God is good....all the time. Most Christians would agree with the first half of that statement, but when you add the second half then they begin to struggle with realities they know...a loss of a child, death in the family, natural disasters, a divorce. It's easy to say "God is good" until you add that little phrase, "all the time." Then you must make a decision. Do I believe this about God or do I doubt because of what I see in a fallen world? We have to make a decision. God's goodness is not circumstantial or situational, it is constant. God is always good to all he has made. That includes you and me. That includes that child that died. That includes those who lost their lives in the Nazi death camps. God is good...all the time.

What we see and often can't reconcile are the actions of man with the apparent inaction of God. When evil men rule why does a good God often appear to do nothing? What we don't see is God's work in our lives and in the world even in the events we think are bad. God's goodness is part of all he does. It's part of his nature. It's a truth for a tired heart on a fallen planet. It's the promise of his care when all else looks hopeless. It's promise for the future. God is good, and yes, he's good all the time.

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Luke 18:19 And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.

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