Healing

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God is good. God is good. God is good. I find myself repeating this phrase a lot lately. It is not because there is a lot of good stuff going on is my life. Actually, it is quite the opposite. Rather, I find myself repeating this phrase to remind me of a truth that I no longer feel. I know that God is good, but my life is so not what I thought it would be which causes me to question the goodness of God.

When I was eighteen I thought I was going to be a high school history teacher. I would have a wife and 2.5 kids, and live the happier ever after life. Then I graduated college only to find that the world had no room for a history teacher with cerebral palsy. Then I received a call from God. I went off to seminary believing that I would be an United Methodist Pastor with a wife and 2.5 kids. Well, I have as Master of Divinity, the wife and three step children, but no biological children, no job, and worse yet, very poor health. There are days when I feel as if God has rejected me. Am I still to believe that God is good?

Of course, I am to believe that God is good. Why? Well, one reason is because the Bible says so. Psalm 145:9 says that “the Lord is good to all.†Psalm 16:2 says “I said to the Lord ‘You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing’†Yes, the Bible is quite clear that God is good. So, if you believe the Bible to be the word of God, as I do, then one must believe that God is good.

So, if God is good, then why am I so miserable? Ahh, now there is the question. The question is really not about God at all. The question is about me and my happiness. Somehow I, and I am sure at some point you have done this too, have equated the goodness of God with my happiness. It is easy to say that God is good when everything is going our way, but when nothing seems to be going our way then somehow God ceases to be good. But, GOD DOES NOT, AND WILL NOT CHANGE. Our perceptions of God may change, but God does not. God is good…all the time…and, all the time…God is good.

God’s goodness does not change based on life’s circumstances. God is good all the time. As servants of God, we must keep our eyes on the goodness of God. It is when we take our eyes off the goodness of God that our world becomes dark. Jesus said in John 8:12 “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never live in darkness, but will have the light of life.†There is the key. We must follow Jesus in order to have light, and we cannot follow Jesus unless we have our eyes on him. If our world grows dark it is because we have our eyes on the wrong things. Most likely it is because we are looking at our circumstances, and not at Jesus.

If we keep our eyes on Jesus, he will light up the positive things is our lives, and show us the way out of the darkness. As, soon as I figured that out, I saw that I have a great life with a wonderful life and three incredible children. God is good!

So, let us determine to keep our eyes on Jesus. When things do not go our way, let us look to Jesus and go his way. When things seem dark, let us look to Jesus, who is the light, so we might see to move forward out of the darkness. And, let us never, ever, forget the goodness of out great and wonderful God.

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