When is God good in your life? When your bank account is overflowing and you find $10 on the ground with no one around? After you ace your test? Absolutely, He is.
What about when you fail your Spanish class or when you do not know how you will pay your rent that is due tomorrow? Or when you break up with your boyfriend/girlfriend? Absolutely, He is.
My uncle died Sunday, but not until today were they able to search for and find the body. Is God good? Always. He is always good.
I think in our society we forget about this. A lot of times, we tend to pray when we are in need. Thankfully this is not true for everyone, but for some it is. If this is the case for you, I do not stand in judgment as it is not my place, but I do serve to question you why you only pray in these times but not in the others.
In the Bible, the Israelites forgot about God except in their time of need. God responded to them out of His great love and mercy. The times they forgot about Him also resulted in their peril. God is good enough not to forget about ever. He made the universe, but He wants relationship with each one of us. Even though we are wicked sinners, God desires you and I.
Perhaps this is more of a challenge for myself to continue to remember who God should be in my heart at all times. I hope it serves to guide you towards Him who loves you greatly.
Do you feel like God is good all the time? How has God shown you, even in difficult times, His goodness? What does scripture say about God's goodness?
Recommend
Comments (38)
The only way to consider the God of scripture good at all times is to suspend belief or at least in certain interpretations of scripture. Some displays of Divine morality in scripture is so immoral as to be horrific. Either the book, or parts of it have to go or God does.
He's always good. Worshipping Him and thanking Him in the midst of our trials is so important! I got in two major wrecks within two weeks of each other. I totaled my car, and someone smashed into me and totaled my dad's car. It was a really hard time for me, and I was basically having to drive a totaled car around because I had no other option. But, being strong and thanking Him even in the trials is so necessary. Soon after, I was able to get an even better car and everything worked out fine. Our circumstances are not going to be amazing all the time. We go through both seasons of trials and seasons of blessings. When you really have a deep relationship with Him, you will be able to have peace and joy in the midst of the trials, which is much better than simply having peace and joy because everything is going great.
Amen! Great post. In my darkest times, I have experienced the goodness of God, not through necessarily understanding everything, but through His presence and His arms around me.
God cannot be good. According to commonly held beliefs, god is incapable of doing evil. If he cannot do evil, he cannot do good. A human being can do good because humans can be presented with a choice. God can simply do.
@AtheistInfidel@xanga - God is good because goodness is one of his attributes. God is also simple and infinite. That means if he is good, he is infinitely good. Consequently, there is no evil in him.
God is nothing like his creation, man who is complex and finite..
@AtheistInfidel@xanga - How you figure that?
@sometimestheycomebackanyway@xanga - I don't recall reading the passage that says god is infinite. I doubt the cro-magnons who wrote the book would be able to comprehend the idea of infinity.
Excellent post.
@AtheistInfidel@xanga - I don't really grasp the concept of infinity either.
I don't believe God is incapable of doing evil. But I also believe he is good-natured. Good-natured people are capable of doing evil.
"On God my salvation and my glory rest; The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God." Psalm 62:7
@AtheistInfidel@xanga - "I don't recall reading the passage that says god is infinite"
Perhaps an argument can be made that infinite is not the same as eternal or everlasting, but there are verses describing Him with these latter two qualities:
“The eternal God is your refuge" -Deuteronomy 33:27
"The everlasting God" -Isaiah 40:28
@sometimestheycomebackanyway@xanga - "God is good because goodness is one of his attributes"
How can you even start to think this is valid discourse?
Person #1: Why is God good?
Person #2: Because he is.
Person #1: Oh, okay.
@AtheistInfidel@xanga - The attributes of God are evident both by revelation and by reason. From the Bible we understand that God is all good. From reason we understand that God must be infinite or else he wouldn't be God.
God by definition is infinite. He is beyond time and space which means he is beyond measure, which means he is infinite.@When_We_Were_Both_Cats@xanga - God revealed himself to man. That is how we know God is good. Judeo-Christian morality has its source in God who teaches mankind, good and evil.
One other thing: It isn't fair to define someone's argument for them. You have to construct your own arguments in response to the actual ones that people have (in this case me).
@nyclegodesi24@xanga - It's extremely hard to grasp a concept like infinity. That is my point. Any comment that is filled with nonsensical mumbo jumbo and deliberately incomprehensible terms is a cop out.
@AtheistInfidel@xanga - Good point. While we're at it, do you believe in free will? I ask because you seem to believe in the reality of goodness, at least in some times in some people, and also because it requires that such people act differently from how they do.
@nyclegodesi24@xanga - I am only basing my ideas on my interpretation of Christian beliefs. I believe the Holy Bible says humans have free will. God on the other hand does not. He is unable to do evil because being incapable of evil is one of his attributes. If he cannot do evil, how can we as humans interpret his actions as good? Any action performed by god is done simply because it is in his nature. Saying that god chooses to be good is like saying humans choose to breath.
I don't believe your god exists at all. I just want to point out that to most people god is whatever they want him to be and that is usually not based on scripture.
@AtheistInfidel@xanga -
"If he cannot do evil, how can we as humans interpret his actions as good?"
The capability of doing evil being necessary for being able to do good - is that a reflection of your beliefs, or is that merely what scripture says?
Also, I don't know that scripture says God is incapable of doing evil. It does say he is good-natured and so on, and uses forceful rhetoric to express that. So, everything he does reflects his nature, but his nature is merely a description of the habits of what he in fact does, so it's meaningless to say that his nature leaves him no choice to do good, for his nature is merely the set of things that he does, which may be freely chosen.
Also, water has no choice but to be replenishing, but this does not mean that water therefore is not good in the sense of good for human beings to drink. So God's being "good" may have aspects that reach beyond mere moral agent good. Think your point needs re-thinking.
@nyclegodesi24@xanga - I did not say the Holy Bible says god is incapable of evil. It is a commonly held Christian belief.
What do you call it when god kills every living thing on Earth except a handful of creatures loaded into a large ship? What to you call it when god commands his chosen ones to cleave off the foreskins of their enemies and rape the women of rival tribes?
I'm specifically talking about morality in this instance so your water analogy holds no weight. I'm talking about actions either being morally good or evil. For example, claiming that bacon is good would not be the same as claiming god is good.
@AtheistInfidel@xanga - Thanks for the clarification. I don't hold the belief that God is incapable of doing evil.
While I don't believe God did destroy every living thing on Earth, even if he did, I would say that's what artists and poets and innovators do to their creations when they go awry. I'd say God is within his rights to unmake what he made. The fact that he hasn't utterly destroyed what he's made is itself more than he needs to do. And I don't think he's ever commanded rape.
@AtheistInfidel@xanga - I don't recall reading the passage that says god is infinite.
As @kk_grayfox@xanga - pointed out, there are scriptures saying God is eternal and everlasting. In addition to the scriptures he posted, there's also I Timothy 1:17, Romans 16:26, and Psalm 90:2.
@musterion99@xanga - everlasting or eternal is something completely different from what he is saying. Everlasting or eternal clearly means that god will last forever. How does that have anything to do with being infinitely good? How could a being be infinitely good?
@nyclegodesi24@xanga -
"When you go out to war against yourenemies and the LORD, your God, delivers them into your hand, so that you take
captives, if you see a comely woman among the captives and become so enamored of
her that you wish to have her as wife, you may take her home to your house."
"As you approach a town to attack it, first offer
its people terms for peace. If they accept your terms and open the gates to
you, then all the people inside will serve you in forced labor. But if they
refuse to make peace and prepare to fight, you must attack the town. When the
LORD your God hands it over to you, kill every man in the town. But you may
keep for yourselves all the women, children, livestock, and other plunder. You
may enjoy the spoils of your enemies that the LORD your God has given you."
"They are the ones who caused the plague to strike the LORD's people. Now kill
all the boys and all the women who have slept with a man. Only the young girls
who are virgins may live; you may keep them for yourselves."
"Lo, a day shall come for
the Lord when the spoils shall be divided in your midst. And I will gather all
the nations against Jerusalem for battle: the city shall be taken, houses
plundered, women ravished; half of the city shall go into exile, but the
rest of the people shall not be removed from the city."
If his "plan" involves killing unborn children and condemning them to an eternity of suffering (arguments with Christians), then that's pretty fucking evil, IMO.
Well, of course there are dark times. But it is through these dark times that we know of God's presence. He leads us out of the dark tunnel. Sometimes, He leaves us in the tunnel for sometime so that we can introspect what we have done and even compare the dark with the light, just to realize or distinguish between what is light and what is dark. But at the end, He will lead us out of that tunnel.
It is through the sad moments that I know what happy moments would feel like. And in turn, I learn to treasure the happy moments more!
God would never leave you, that - I know.
At one point in my life I suppose I may have given this post a heartfelt "Amen". Now, I have difficulty understanding how anyone can look at the suffering of human history, including in our modern time, and not doubt the "good"-ness of God. If you believe we were created in God's image, then use your God-like ability to THINK and don't be afraid to challenge - even to challenge His goodness. If God exists (and I choose to believe He does, even in spite of some damming evidence), then He can handle any thought you have, including those that challenge Him.
People who comment about God being infinite and good and how wicked we humans are - those same people probably couldn't disagree too much with the analogy that God's capacity compared to that of humankind would be far greater than that of an adult over a child. Yet, those same people who would be appalled if an adult neglected a child are willing to make excuses for/find it necessary to defend God in His "neglect" of humanity. Thus, we get silly posts like this where we find it necessary to remind ourselves of God's goodness in the midst of atrocious situations. Why? What for?
I, for one, can't lie to my self in the face of our human Suffering. The only conclusion I can come to is that I don't know for sure if God is good, I only know that if He isn't, I don't want anything to do with Him. If He is, then He understands me far more than I do myself, AND He understands His own failures in our f***ed up world.
Tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner - to understand is to forgive.