** update 5/12/08 - I don't want this to come off as preachy or mean-spirited, but I'm pretty passionate about this. God is sovereign and we do live in a fallen world -- However, there's a midset switch that needs to take place before people can begin walking in the power of God's glory that's about to be revealed on the earth. This is the place I'm coming from when I write this.
One thing that I keep running across in my interactions is the fact that so few people really believe God is good. It doesn't seem that such an idea would be so difficult to grasp. When the Lord brought this to my attention a few weeks ago I was stunned! I didn't truly believe Him to be good? But God is good... all the time... right? I realized, however, that I had deluded myself. I had a common misconception of God that many people seem to fall under.
The epiphony came after I read an article about faith and healing -- one part struck me in particular:
"Misconceptions of who He is and what He is like restricts our faith. For example, if we believe that God allows sickness in order to build character, we won't have confidence praying in situations where healing is needed. However, if we believe that sickness is to the body what sin is to the soul, then no disease intimidates us. Faith is more free to develope when we truly see the heart of God as good."
It hit me -- I had believed the notion that God causes pain in order to bring good. That, however, is not the definition of a good father! If an earthly father acted like that, he'd be arrested for child abuse! God, on the other hand, is not like us -- He doesn't have to cause or allow pain in order to produce good... He can just produce good of His own hands. If I were to believe otherwise, it would be like saying that a child has to fall away from God in order to find Him. Couldn't it be, though, that a child can just walk with God the whole time? Does wickedness have to prevail in our lives in order for there to be righteousness? Or can there just BE righteousness? Well, if we're talking about a righteous God...
I'm now under the assumption that there is no reason to suffer hardship or put up with the devil's reign in my life in order to force God to make some good out of it (which He always will, by the way -- He takes what the devil does for harm and turns it for good).
After coming to terms with this, I've realized that there is a superior reality that God has called us to walk in -- but it takes setting aside the silly idea that God wants us to suffer in order to "build character" when He can just build character using His own works! I do not want the idea that there is "no pleasure without pain" to rule my life. When I see a work of the devil, I'm not going to think, "Oh, well, God must have a plan so I'm going to sit around and wait until He does it..." NO! I'm going to pursue the reality I know that says God is always good, and He always will do good, and the Kingdom of Heaven is coming to earth and there are no works of Satan in heaven!! Let's face this: God is always good, and the devil is always bad. I'm going to fight for the will and reign of the Kingdom and will of God in every situation, no matter what it looks like.
** update 5/12/08 - Testimony - Every so often I've struggled with bouts of "depresssion" like tendencies, and usually at the end of that period of time (about a couple days or a week or so) where I'm depressed the Lord will deliver me and I'll grow and change. It's one of those situations people will say, "I wouldn't trade it for the world!" But I always think, isn't there a better way I could have learned this? Well, one time I realized I was headed for another one of my depressive episodes again...but I realized God's "goodness" (or what I thought was His goodness) and knew that He would grow me out of the process, so I sat down in prayer and said, "Lord, if I have to go through this again, I'm okay with it... because I know at the end of this I'll be better than at the beginning." His response shocked me. He said (paraphrased), "That's true. But you know... you don't have to go through it at all. If you just turn to me now and let me work it out in you, you won't have to suffer through the sadness. You'll come out the same in the end. And it will save both you and I some pain." So, keep this in mind. We really, really don't have to go through pain and suffering in order for the Lord to produce character and life lessons in us. Does He use them if they happen? Yes! He's sovereign and we live in a crappy world... but He's also good. He's extraordinarily good.
However, with this understanding it also brings the responsibility of action. When I am confronted from here on out with negative circumstances, it is my responsibility to act out of faith knowing that God is good. I can no longer let idleness be confused for "waiting on God" because faith is an action, and faith is birthed out of an understand of who I'm having faith in -- God. And if I don't know anything, I know this: God is ALWAYS good.
*update - 6.5.08 - An interesting topic was brought up - does God allow pain in order to bring about His glory? I think sometimes He does. However, this is my problem: People assume that the Lord allows them to have cancer, for example, in order to produce a work of character in them. So their testimony becomes "I have cancer, but the Lord is doing all this good work in and through me because of it!" That is a wrong perspective. In the Bible, even the man who was sick so that Jesus could show His glory was healed by Jesus immediately afterwards. Jesus said (paraphrasing) "This man is sick so that I can show my glory" and then what did He do? He healed the man who was sick! The testimony shouldn't be "I am sick so God can have His glory." It should be, "I was sick, but then God healed me." That is what gives God the glory. God is a Healer. It's who He is, therefore, it's what He does. He heals EVERY disease. Our testimony should never be "I am sick but God is doing good things." It should be, "I was sick, and it produced a work in me, but then I was healed, and now God has the glory."
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I think another misconception we have is what God's goodness looks like. I was reading John 9 where Jesus heals the blind man. What stuck out is that Jesus said the man was not blind because of sin(either his or his fathers) but instead that he was blind to show God's work. I am sure his parents did not think it was a good thing when their child was born blind and as he grew up I am sure he did't. That, as humans, does not look like goodness. I looks like sin, that is why the disciples ask Jesus about whose sin caused it. I was, however, through the blindness that he met Jesus. Plus God was glorified in the healing. The other case is later when Lazerus gets sick and Jesus chooses to let him die before coming. Neither Mary or Martha saw that as good, but God did. It did what it was suppose to do, glorify Him. That is what is good. God is good all the time and in being good he is glorified. We must not misconceive that what we view as goodness is the same as God's. We just always trust that he said he is good all the time and that means he is. Praise you Father!
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