Good and Great
I doubt. I don’t know about you, but I doubt God’s goodness and I doubt His ability. Typically it’s one or the other, but I doubt.
I doubt. I don’t know about you, but I doubt God’s goodness and I doubt His ability. Typically it’s one or the other, but I doubt.
A few years ago, a mentor and I discussed the fact that God is both good and great. But in our experience it often feels like that He is one or the other. Either He is incredibly loving but really doesn’t have all the power in the world or He is all-powerful but is not loving. These two characteristics of God seem like oil and water.
Which of these that I doubt varies at different seasons in my life. Lately I wrestle more with whether He is truly great. Over the past year, I have experienced God’s goodness in so many ways – often through painful experiences and sitting and allowing Him to do some soul surgery.
But through all of these struggles my circumstances stayed the same. Maybe this is why I doubt His greatness? He has been good in the struggle – He’s been present and healing – but He hasn’t changed my situation. Maybe in my mind I would think Him great if He changed my circumstances according to what I wanted. This is not an accurate way of assessing God’s power.
I need a shift – a shift in thinking that recognizes that God’s character is not dependent on my experience. I need a shift in thinking from the demand to know what God is up to. I need a shift in expectations. I need an increase in faith.
In Ezekiel 37:11 God speaks to Ezekiel and tells him that the house of Israel is saying “Our bones are dry, our hope has perished; we are cut off.” Yet this accusation follows the previous verses where God forms dry bones together, attaching tendons, muscle and flesh and then breathes life into them. They were still under the impression they were dry bones. How often does God work when we don’t know it? How often is He redeeming and resurrecting and we still believe we are dry bones?
Just because we cannot see God working does not mean He is not. Our sight and our understanding often are skewed and so we doubt. At least I do. My prayer for you and for me as we grow in faith in God’s goodness and greatness is this: “Now to him who by the power that is working within us is able to do far beyond all that we ask or think, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)
6 Comments
Sara Alexander
Dagger in the heart!
Thank you, Laura, for your fresh and honest sharing. Much of my lamenting stems from "demanding to know what He's up to." I loathe being in the dark, where He does some of His best work. Your words are very convicting. Bless you!
laura.murray
Agreed!
Thanks for your response, Sara. Agreed that He does some of His best work in the dark. Prayers for patience and trust for us both!
Yomama
Hey Laura, I just wanted to
Hey Laura, I just wanted to comment on a bit of your post "Either He is incredibly loving but really doesn’t have all the power in the world or He is all-powerful but is not loving." I'm not denying that God is incredibly loving torward all his creation, but that is far from the only thing that He feels, Look at Psalm 5. It says that God hates all evildoers, you and I are evildoers. God hates me and hates you. Look at Romans 9. It says God especially hated Esau, and I believe we can apply that to all reprobate. God's goodness consists primarily in his intrinsic value and glory. And I believe that what is right is defined by valuing what is most valuable -namely Himself. And God always upholds his value, even if that means that He must "imprison all to disobedience" as Romans 11 puts it. "Is it not from the mouth of The Most High that good and evil come?" as Lam. 3 puts it. To which we respond with Paul "Who has known the mind of the Lord?"
laura.murray
God is Love
Thanks for your post, Yomama. A couple of things I wanted to clarify as I read your comment. In my comment I was trying to communicate that two of God’s characteristics – love and sovereignty seem to be irreconcilable at times although they are in fact both true of God. I agree that love is not His only emotion but love is distinct in that it is one of the defining characteristics of God. God IS love. (1 John 4:1-18) In my post I hoped to communicate that God being love and God being sovereign are not mutually exclusive.
Also, I believe that we need to read the passages about God’s discipline, His wrath, His anger, etc in the context of the fact that love is one of His defining characteristics. God is love and His discipline, wrath, anger all fall in the context of love rather than the other way around. Yes, God will always bring Himself glory and He does that through His characteristic of love.
J. J.
Justified by Faith
God IS Love! So what are the attributes of love? You can find them in 1 Corinthians 13: Love is patient, kind, does not envy or parade itself, is not arrogant, does not seek its own, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth-Love never fails.
Yomama is right in one aspect: we are not righteous or good. But this is based on our deeds. If God were to judge us according to what we do then we are not righteous, there is none who does good. We are all guilty before God, no one will be justified by there deeds of the law.
However, let us not forget the Good News- Jesus came, He died for us, and He rose from the grave. Because of this the righteousness of God has come through faith in Jesus Christ to all and in all who believe. For there is no difference between us in the fact that we all have sinned, we all fall short of the glory of God. But through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus we are freely justified by God's grace. By the blood of Jesus through our gift of faith that jesus authors, perfects, and finishes. This is the way that God had planned from the beginning of creation to save us. This is the way that God can remain just and still justify the one that puts their faith in Jesus.
Therefore we conclude that man is justified and declared righteous by faith.
(Taken from Romans 3, Eph.2:8, Heb.12:2)
laura.murray
Agreed and thank you for your
Agreed and thank you for your comment J.J.!