“Never believe anything bad about God.” Dallas Willard

I placed my faith in Christ on December 31, 1980. I was 15 years old, and before that night, it was my doubt in God’s goodness that stopped me from trusting in Him. While I believed that a god who made everything existed, I thought he was distant, unkind, angry, and utterly uninterested in not only me but all of humankind. By God’s grace, in the months leading up to that night, I heard about the true God — the One described in the Bible — who knew me, saw me, created me, and invited me to a friendship with Him. Then, on New Year’s Eve 1980, I was at a winter camp where I heard the story of Good Friday. I decided then that if Jesus was so good as to lay down His life to bring me to God, then I wanted to know Him. It was doubting God’s goodness that kept me away from Him, but it was being shown God’s goodness that brought me to Him.

(If you haven’t read last week’s blog post on hope, go back and read it now. This post is the second in our series.)

Today, let’s fortify our hope by considering the goodness of God.

We say, “God is good!” But what does that mean? First, it’s recognizing that there is nothing bad in Him. Good is literally and fully who God is. Jesus told the Rich Young Man, “Only God is truly good.”

Sometimes I’m afraid of the dark. If I hear a sound in our backyard, I’ll flick on the patio light or shine a flashlight to see if something is lurking in the shadows. God has no dark side. John wrote, “God is light, and there is no darkness in Him at all”(1 John 1:5). God does not lie or trick or deceive. He’s not shady.

When we say that “God is good!” it also means that what God does is good. His works demonstrate what His character is like. When God finished creating the world (including humankind), He looked around and declared, “This is good, so very good!” (Take a look at the first two chapters in Genesis or Psalm 104.)

God is a good gift giver. He’s generous and doesn’t hold back. Jesus said that human parents, even though they’re sinful, know how to give good gifts to their kids. “How much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11).

Not only are God’s gifts good, though. Anything that is good comes from God! Consider these words from James 1:17. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

God does good to people even when we don’t know it or recognize it as from Him. One time, by the power of Christ in them, Barnabas and Paul miraculously healed a man. The crowd thought that the gods had visited them, so they called Barnabas “Zeus” and Paul “Hermes” and wanted to worship them. Oops! Paul and Barnabas were quick to correct them, saying,

“Friends, why are you doing this? We, too, are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. In the past, he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.”

And part of the good that our good God does is to take evil and turn it for good. After being betrayed multiple times, Joseph said to his brothers, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20). Joseph refused to think anything bad about God and so fortified his hope in Him.

I could write for days about the goodness of God. This week I took an inventory of God’s gifts in my life over the years. I was overwhelmed in gratitude as I saw how many times God demonstrated His goodness to me. Now it’s your turn. Take a life inventory. Where do you see God’s goodness? Fortify your hope by refusing to think anything bad about God and recalling His goodness in His Word and in your life.