"God is good all of the time and all of the time God is good."
This is a disposition in life that we need to have if we are to relate to God intimately and properly interpret life's circumstances.
What you think about a person determines if and how often you relate with them.
God's goodness is fundamental to our understanding of Him.
When we speak of God's goodness, we are speaking of His benevolence, His kindness, the fact that He is all-powerful (omnipotence), all-knowing (omniscience) and all-wise (based on his omnipresence).
Creation account - Genesis 1.
This is how all great things begin:
Genesis 1:1-4 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.
If you are going to live with the goodness of God marking your life, you need to trust Him and obey His commands.
Psalm 84 How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! Selah Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion. O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed! For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!
God wants us to live a life of abundant faith and hope that through Him, everywhere He is invited, all things can and will one day be made better. When we are not grounded in the reality of the goodness of God in all circumstances, we are robbed of life's true pleasures.
"I was miserable because my thoughts were miserable. My thoughts robbed me of the ability to enjoy my life."
All the days of the desponding and afflicted are made evil by anxious thoughts and forebodings, but he who has a glad heart has a continual feast, regardless of circumstances. Proverbs 15:15
Shortly after I began to seriously study the Bible, I felt an oppressive atmosphere around me. Everything seemed gloomy— as if something bad was going to happen. It wasn’t anything I could explain, just a vague, dreaded sense of something evil or wrong was about to happen. “Oh, God,” I prayed. “What’s going on? What is this feeling?” I had hardly uttered the question when God spoke to me. “Evil forebodings.”
I had to meditate on that for several minutes. I had never heard the phrase before. God had spoken to me, and I stayed quiet before Him so I could hear the answers. I realized, first of all, that my anxieties weren’t real— that is, they were not based on true circumstances or situations. I was having problems— as most of us do but they were not as critical as the devil was making it appear. My acceptance of his lies, even though they were vague, was opening the door for the evil forebodings. I eventually realized that I had lived in the midst of similar gloomy feelings most of my life. I was expecting something bad to happen instead of aggressively expecting something good. I felt a dread, an unexplained anxiety around me. I couldn’t put my finger on anything specific— only that sense of something evil or terrible. The Living Bible says, “When a man is gloomy, everything seems to go wrong.” That’s how I felt, as if something— maybe everything— was wrong or was about to go wrong.
I realized that for most of my life, I had been miserable because of evil thoughts and anxious forebodings. As I continued to meditate on evil forebodings, God broke through and gave me a clear revelation. I was miserable because my thoughts were miserable my thoughts were poisoning my outlook. My thoughts robbed me of the ability to enjoy my life. I should have been saying, “Thank You, God, for today. Thank you for Dave and my children and my friends and all Your blessings.” But, instead of being positive, I found myself even dreading to answer the phone when it rang, for fear it might be bad news.
I had began to live in a vague fear and dread of the future. I had not been taught to let go of what was behind. I couldn’t rejoice in what I had now and the good things going on in my life. I focused on the past and what might lie ahead— and what lay ahead was usually gloom and doom and chaos because that was what I was expecting. Satan had built a stronghold in my mind, and I was trapped until I learned I could tear down that negative, evil stronghold by applying God’s Word to my life and circumstances.
I was miserable because I had allowed Satan to rob me of the ability to enjoy my life. It took a while before I was able to be positive most of the time, but little by little, my thinking changed, and so did my life. I no longer live in evil forebodings, expecting to hear at any moment of a new problem. Now I purposely expect good things to happen in my life. I realize now that I can choose my thoughts. I don’t have to accept Satan’s lies. Like everyone else, negative things do happen to me from time to time, but I don’t become negative because of them. I remain positive, and that helps me enjoy my life even in the midst of the storms.
-Joyce Meyer
What about trials in life?
Romans 8:28-39 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The cross of Jesus is the ultimate sign of God's goodness in the midst of pain and suffering.
Repent of sin and put your trust in this good God today, calling on His name.
Second City Church- Designer God Sermon Series 2015