LIVING LIKE GOD IS GOOD: THE FREEDOM OF FAITH

Yesterday we looked at  our struggle to believe that God is good. 
​To read the previous post, click here.

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HOW DO WE GET BACK?

When I tried to understand all this, it troubled me deeply
till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.
When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered,
I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.
Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
And afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
 But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge;
 I will tell of all your deeds.
-Psalm 73:16-17, 21-28
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STEP 1: THE RIGHT FOCus

Asaph doubted God’s goodness when he looked around him. He failed when he compared his life to the lives of others. He became discouraged when he let his emotions fuel his perspective. But when he lifted his eyes to God, he found hope.

When we go through times of pain and suffering, having the right focus is critical. 
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“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.
-Isaiah 55:8

We need to take a step back and see the bigger picture. Not the bigger picture of our circumstances, but the bigger picture of God and who He has proven Himself to be in Scripture and in our own lives. 

Instead of focusing on our circumstances, which constantly change, we need to focus on God, who never changes. Has God been faithful before? He will be faithful again.

​God created us to glorify Him, and He gets glory through being good to us! Our problem is that we tend to forget that God knows more than we do, and so we question His method, forgetting that His thoughts and His ways are so much higher than ours.
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STEP 2: THE RIGHT EXPECTATION

Instead of expecting God to make us happy, we need to expect God to make us holy – and then we will discover that joy is byproduct of holiness. Unfortunately for us, growth can only come through trials; that’s why Peter wrote that our suffering comes for a purpose:  

In all this you greatly rejoice,
though now for a little while you may have had to suffer
grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven
genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold,
which perishes even though refined by fire— may result in praise,
glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Though you have not seen him, you love him;
and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him
and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,
for you are receiving the end result of your faith,
the salvation of your souls.
-1 Peter 1:6-9

It’s important to remember that God does not waste our suffering. The things we endure are for a purpose and will not last longer than absolutely necessary. The quicker we learn to trust God in our suffering, the quicker we will find the peace and joy He has promised on the other side.

​We also need to have the expectation that God will be with us in the midst of our suffering. While He does not promise to remove us from pain, God does make many promises to be with us through it. In Isaiah 43:2, He promises to be with us when (not if!) we walk through fire and cross through waters. In John 11, we learn of Jesus weeping with Mary and Martha at the death of Lazarus. And in Hebrews 13:5, we’re reminded that God promised never to leave or forsake us. 
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STEP 3: THE RIGHT BELIEF

God is good.

And everything He does is good.

God cannot do anything except what is good because He. Is. Good.

If it’s true that God’s ways are higher than ours, if it’s true that He works our suffering for a purpose, if it’s true that He is with us in the midst of our pain, then regardless of what we see or how we feel, God is good. We may not see it yet, but we will. We may not feel it yet, but we will. It’s simply a matter of faith – will we choose to believe what we can’t see? Will we choose to wait and see? 
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I remain confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart
​and wait for the Lord.
-Psalm 27:13-14
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STEP 4: THE RIGHT RESPONSE

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.
-Habakkuk 3:17-19
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When we believe that God is good and everything He does is good, we can choose to wait and see. We can choose to rejoice. We can choose to worship. We can choose to obey.
To believe God is to obey God.

When I don’t understand what He is doing, I can choose to believe that God is good and I can act as though it’s true by…

…getting up when I want to stay in bed all day

...eating healthy when it's easier to eat my feelings in junk food

…spending time with God when I don’t feel like praying or reading His word

…tithing when we’re low on money and don’t know how to make ends meet

…focusing on others’ needs instead of focusing on my own

…doing the right thing at the right time regardless of how I feel. 
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THIS IS THE SURRENDERED LIVING.

Will I praise God when I lose as much as when I win?

Will I praise God when I don’t understand as much as when it makes sense?

Will I praise God when it hurts as much as when it heals?

Unfortunately, we may never fully see the goodness behind what God has done or is doing in our lives. Will we still choose to believe that He is good even when we don’t understand and it doesn’t make sense? Are we willing to wait until Heaven to see His plan? Or will we demand to know it now, and give in to our flesh to cope with our disappointment?

It’s tempting to look at the stories we read in Scripture and forget that they were real people who suffered in very real ways – and while we know the end of their story, they did not. Joseph didn’t know if he would ever get out of prison. Abraham didn’t know if he would ever have a child. Moses didn’t know if they would truly be able to leave Egypt. All they had were the promises of God, which seemed to go against their reality. Yet still they hoped. Still they believed. And God proved himself good. 
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WHEN TRUTH IS PAINFUL

Sometimes the reason we give in to destructive responses to disappointment is because it’s easier to believe God made a mistake, to believe God failed, to believe God isn’t really in control, than to admit that He knew what He was doing and He did it on purpose.

Sometimes the truth hurts. 
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“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.
-Isaiah 55:8

You are good, and what you do is good.
-Psalm 119:68a
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 “But you don’t get it.”

“How could God be good when I lost my job?”

“How could God be good when I lost this relationship?”

“How could God be good when I was mistreated?”

“How could God be good when I was diagnosed with this disease?
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HOW COULD GOD BE GOOD WHEN THE WORST HAPPENS?

On January 5, 2017, my father had surgery to replace a heart valve. I was concerned, but not significantly, as he’d had other procedures before, including heart surgery to have a stent put in. This surgery would take a while, so my mom and I were waiting with some church members in the waiting room until after lunchtime before we heard anything. It was good news; the surgery had gone well and he was in recovery. We were allowed to see him, though he was still under anesthesia and would not be awake for several hours. We walked in the room to see him, and felt such relief. Unfortunately, it was short lived, as within 5 minutes of being in the room he coded. We were rushed back to the waiting room as all of the doctors and staff on the floor rushed in. We later found out they opened him back up in the room to revive him.

Over the course of the next 5 days my mother and I went through a roller coaster that is indescribable. Hope, and then no hope. Joy, and then grief. Peace, and then fear. Despite the many efforts of the medical teams, the Lord brought my father home to Heaven on January 10th, 2017.

During those 5 days I wrestled with God through prayer as I had never done. My prayers started with pleas for healing and ended with “Thy will be done.” The hardest prayer I have ever prayed is “Glorify your name.”

During that week, I came face to face with the very fear I had most struggled from my childhood to now: losing a parent. As I struggled to surrender my dad and his future, my future, my mother’s future, our ministry’s future, God mercifully brought one truth to mind, over and over again: “God is good and everything He does is good.” I was reminded that I had already told God I would love Him, serve Him, and follow Him, regardless of what happens. Now it was time to act on it. I had to choose to praise Him in the storm.

The next several months are still much of a blur, as so much was impacted by my father’s death – family, church, and Lifeline - but the one thing I know and remember is how God’s grace met me each moment of each day to carry me through to the point where I could move from grief to joy, peace, and hope.

While what I went through did not feel good, I know that it was good because God is good, and everything He does is good. I can’t say that I see all of the good, but I see some of it. And now I can look back at the experience with gratitude as I see how God carried me through.

God has done great things for me. He delivered me from myself and my sin. He delivered me from dependence on myself. He delivered me from fear. He delivered me from my need to control. And if I’m honest, He is still delivering me from all of those things – and many more. Even now, I still struggle at times with what the future holds; but I’m thankful that it’s in God’s hands, not mine, because He is good and He loves me.

God gives good gifts. He has given me a beautiful life filled with both sorrow and joy. He has given me a godly husband to love and to serve, and to serve with. He has given me godly friends to encourage and be encouraged by. He has given me opportunities to share His good news to those who need it most. He has given me a great desire to know Him and to make Him known. He has been faithful. And I am thankful.
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God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
– John Piper

​It’s not easy to believe that God is good in the midst of pain. But it’s worth it. When life hurts, I beg you - don’t push God away – let Him come near, let Him comfort you, and choose to believe that He is creating a beautiful picture with broken pieces of your life because He is good, and everything He does is good.
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​This post is a lesson developed by Bethany Harris inspired by and partly based on the book Lies Women Believe & The Truth That Sets Them Free  by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. You can purchase the book and accompanying study guide here. 

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