Why do we have such a hard time believing that God is good? Maybe I should say it like this. Why do I have such a hard time believing that God is good?
Jesus gave a great principle along these lines. At the end of his famous Sermon on the Mount, he said this: Which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent (Matt. 7:9-10)? Basically, what Jesus was saying is this. If children ask their father for bread, the father won’t give them a rock, and if they ask for some fish to eat, he won’t give them a snake. A father won’t give something useless like a rock or something harmful like a snake, when a child asks for some food.
Why? Because God, as our heavenly Father, is good. In fact, Jesus goes on to say this. “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him (verse 11)!” Jesus says that compared to the holiness and perfections of God, I am evil. But even as an evil father, I give good gifts to my children. I don’t give useless gifts or harmful gifts, like rocks and snakes. I give good gifts. And if that is true, then how much more will God, our heavenly Father, who is perfectly good in every way, give good gifts to us, his children, when we ask.
The problem comes when what God gives us doesn’t seem good. The problem comes when what God gives us actually seems useless, at best, or harmful, at worst. The problem comes when we ask for good, normal things like food, and what we receive is rocks, or even snakes. So, what do we do?
Well, we live by faith. Unfortunately, that phrase, “to live by faith,” has practically become a Christian cliché, which means it has almost become meaningless. So, what does it mean to actually live by faith? It means that you believe that Jesus is bigger and better and stronger that whatever you are up against, and then you adjust your life based on that belief. You make your decisions based on that belief. You carry out your actions based on that belief. You retrain your thinking based on that belief. You even line up your emotions based on the truth that Jesus is enough for whatever situation you’re in. You remind yourself of the character and the power and the promises of God over and over again in the middle of your hardship, and then you live like those things really are true.
Do we really believe that God is good? Or maybe I should rephrase the question like this. Do we really believe that what God does is useless? Do we really believe that God is out to harm us? Do we really believe that God will allow something horrible to happen to us? The issue is that when we go through hardships, we are tempted to doubt the love of God and the goodness of God.
There is a consistent refrain in the Psalms. The Lord is good; his love endures forever. God’s love for us endures forever. It never ends. God is always good, and everything that he does is good. Maybe my point is this. God never, ever, ever does bad things, or gives bad gifts. Our task is to believe that that is true, and then to act like that is true.