Focus on God’s goodness

“(What, what would have become of me) had I not believed to see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living!”

— Psalm 27:13 (AMP)

At a recent family gathering, a hush fell over the room as my 3-year-old granddaughter Maddie prayed, “God is great. God is good. Let us thank him for our food. Amen.” I sat in awe at the assurance in her voice that God is good.

I wonder what our lives might look like if we really believed in God’s great goodness. If we knew beyond a doubt that, no matter what we saw happening around us or to us, our belief that God is good would not be shaken.

I often hear people say, “If God is good, why do bad things happen?”

Bad things happen because human nature without God isn’t good. And we all have our demons twisting our perceptions and tempting us to handle things the wrong way.

There’s been times in my life I have questioned his goodness. But the Bible repeats over and over that God is good. God is pure-hearted and can’t be bad. It’s against his nature. His goal is to work all things out for our good.

His goodness is evident in creation. Look at the glorious sunsets he paints across the sky, with pink and purple hues. Or the colors of a rainbow that appear in the sky after a heavy rain. He tells us that he gives us rest from our burdens when we turn them over to him.

He has given us purpose and meaning to our lives just because we know him. And, though our fractured heart hurts more than we can bear, he promises to heal us just for asking.

He loves us unconditionally, a love beyond human comprehension. And, most of all, he gave us salvation through Christ and an eternal home in Heaven.

The world may not always be kind to us. But God promises to never leave our side or forsake us. When the dark clouds of doubt and fear fill our minds, we can’t always feel his goodness. But that’s when we need trust that it’s there.

When we are feeling weary, confused or overwhelmed, we can focus on his goodness and know, like the psalmist, eventually he will come through and we will live through our hardship to see his goodness.

• Annettee Budzban is a Christian author of the book “Letters To A Friend,” speaker, life and writing coach and nurse. She can be contacted at annetteebudzban@aol.com.