The love of your life just broke up with you and your heart is shattered.
Your life just isn’t what you thought it would be. Nothing seems to go your way.
Your friends are thriving post-college and you still can’t land a full-time job with benefits.
You hate your job and your boss is the spawn of Satan; meanwhile, your best friend keeps getting promoted and has everything she wants.
All of your friends keep getting engaged and you don’t even have a boyfriend.
You’re mid-thirties and still single, while you watch all your friends in their happily-ever-after lives.
Your sisters keep having babies, while you and your husband continue to struggle with infertility or miscarriages.
It doesn’t feel like God is being very good to you.
If you grew up in church, you may have heard the call and response:
“God is good…”
“…All the time!”
“And all the time…”
…Good is good!”
For years, I’ve believed this concept. Of course, God is always good. No matter our circumstances He is inherently good. Always. But I believed this and understood it at a universal level. Not a personal one.
Of course God is always good, but sometimes it feels like He is MORE good to my friends and other people I see around me.
She is getting the raise, the ring, the baby, the car, the success, the fame… not me. God is blessing other people around me in ways that I want to be blessed but am not.
Is God sometimes more good to others and less good to me?
If you follow me on facebook, I shared an article from 1998 by Paige Benton Brown that blew my mind.
In this article about singleness (but relevant for all things), Paige says,
Can God be any less good to me on the average Tuesday morning than he was on that monumental Friday afternoon when he hung on a cross in my place? The answer is a resounding NO. God will not be less good to me tomorrow either, because God cannot be less good to me. His goodness is not the effect of his disposition but the essence of his person—not an attitude but an attribute. … It is a cosmic impossibility for God to shortchange any of his children. … If he fluctuated one quark in his goodness, he would cease to be God.
I’m sorry. Can we just soak that in for a minute?
Can God be any less good to me on the average Tuesday morning than he was on that monumental Friday afternoon when he hung on a cross in my place?
This is personal, ladies.
Jesus chose to die for you and every day of your life, whether it’s a glorious Saturday afternoon or a crappy Monday morning, He is just as good to you as He was the day He sacrificed His life in exchange for yours.
It is a cosmic impossibility for God to shortchange any of his children.
Psalm 84: 11 says,
For the LORD God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The LORD will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.
Not only is He always supernaturally, perfectly, abundantly good to you, but He never withholds a good thing from you!
That means He’s not withholding a husband, the dream job, success, financial blessing… HE DOESN’T SHORTCHANGE YOU.
Which means the situation you are in that you don’t like, the problem you’re facing, the suffering your experiencing, or the thing you are begging God to give you… It is God’s unconditional, perfect GOODNESS that you don’t have it. It is His perfect provision for you that has you right where you are.
He cannot be less good to you and He cannot withhold any good thing from you. So right where you are is actually His very best for you.
Gulp.
In fact, I would take it so far as to say, if you are in a crummy place because you are choosing sin or obedience to God, the crummy consequences you are facing are still His very best for you. Does He want you choosing sin? Absolutely not. But in His goodness, He is allowing you to face the consequences of your disobedience so that you might be compelled to repent and turn to Him. He desires to be reconciled with you– that is His best for you!
So what does this mean for us?
Well first, it means that if we’re waiting for God to do ______X______ or give us ______X______ before we fully trust Him or believe He is good to us, we need to confess it and ask God’s Spirit to change our heart.
Second, we need to start living like we are right in the center of God’s best for us. We need to wake up each day, reminding ourselves that He withholds no good thing and that we are experiencing His absolute goodness in our lives exactly where we are.
Would you live differently if you truly believed that? Would you prayers change? Would your attitude change? Would the way you view your friends’ lives change?
As for God, his way is perfect: The LORD’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him. Psalm 18:30
