Over the weekend someone asked me, “Is God bein’ good to you?”
I didn’t quite know how to answer that. I’ve been pondering it for the last couple of days.
In the cosmic sense the answer is of course yes. I’m alive. I have a job, a place to live, a car, food to eat, etc. I have much to be grateful for and I know that. Life could be MUCH worse.
In the Christian sense we’re always supposed to be ready with a hearty, “Yes.”
But in the specific sense, how do I answer that question? I had a little bit of vacation funk over the weekend. Sometimes returning to life after time away is a huge let down. My life is still the same, which in the cosmic sense, see above, is all good. In the specific sense there are questions God isn’t answering. There are situations he isn’t speaking to. I didn’t feel hearty about how God is treating me.
So do I go with my feelings in the moment, an authentic yet temporary answer. Or do I go with the general knowledge and truth that God is always good.
Maybe the question was simply my friend’s version of, how are you? Did he really want an honest answer or a trite response? I don’t know.
In the end I just looked at him like he was weird and changed the subject.
I have a problem with his question. It implies that God’s love for us fluctuates. It implies that there are times when God won’t be good, which is just not possible.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jer. 29:11
“The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.” Nah. 1:7
“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! ” Psalm 34:8
That isn’t to say there aren’t times that we don’t FEEL like God is being good to us. But God can never stop BEING good to us. It is in His unchanging and eternal nature. The ultimate proof of His goodness is Christ on the cross and our redemption from death. And sometimes God’s being good to us involves some hardship on our part.
It’s the difference, as you distinguished, between our temporal situation and God’s eternal character. I hope your friend isn’t confusing the two.
Look at you, go Doug
But I agree with you completely. Yet how often do we judge God’s character based on how we feel rather than on what is implicitly true? We judge his love by how close he feels, by events in our lives, by if he grants our wishes, etc.
Case in point of why we have to stand on the truth and not on something changing like feelings or circumstances. I suppose in the Greek this is called, faith
What is this “greek” you speak of? Are you showing off your seminary degree again?
LOL - I gotta use my degree somehow.