More on  the goodness of God demonstrated in the challenges of life.

Paul recognized  the goodness of God in his difficulties and chose in faith to embrace his weakness. When Paul prayed to have his thorn removed God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul’s response was, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weakness so that the power of Christ may rest on me!” (2 Cor. 12:9,10).

What if Paul had sat in prison sulking and feeling sorry for himself, angry at his captors and God? We wouldn’t have two thirds of the New Testament! For it was in the quietness of prison that Paul had the time to write all those letters.

The truth is, “God is good, all the time!” and “All the time God is good!” We need to expand our vision of who He is, so that when things don’t go the way we want, we can, by faith, declare and embrace His undesired goodness. We need to grasp that He has a plan and will work it out. We need to comprehend that for each disappointment He has a sequel.

As it says in Hebrews 12:1&2, He has laid out a race for us, He goes before us and is working on maturing and completing our faith in the process. He calls us to run the race, looking to Jesus, not at our circumstances, our comfort or the crowd.

As it says in Psalm 23, He calls us to live in the truth that He, as our good Shepherd, knows where He’s going (in paths of righteousness) and we can follow Him with confidence, through beauty and beasts, through light and darkness, through green pastures and valleys of shadow.

We can choose to measure things by our own very limited, self-centered human wisdom, complaining when we don’t get our way, and living in discontent, self-pity and shallow faith. Or we can choose to be confident in God’s all-encompassing goodness and wisdom, embracing whatever He brings, finding our rest in Him alone, remembering that our Hope comes from Him (Ps. 62:5).

Let us live in the light of His beautiful character, expressed in the declaration: : God is good, all the time; all the time, God is good.

Picture: frazzzled language learners in 1980, a diffclut tiime out of which the Lord brought much goodness.