God is Good

One of the questions that plagues us as a people of faith is how it is that persons without faith still have good lives. Why do the wicked prosper? Why does it seem nothing happens to those who do not fear God? 

The answer, as hard as it can be for us sometimes, is simply the truth that we already know: 

Because God is good. 

That's it. That's why the wicked prosper. That's why bad things don't happen to bad persons (or persons who make bad choices). Because God is good. He cannot be otherwise. 

Malachi says it plainly in a way that can confuse us or even cause our hearts to wrestle: 

God is good not just to His own people (1:5).

God is good. That's the gist of it. That's the heart of it. And God has to be good. If God were not good, through and through, then even those of us who believe in Him would have trouble knowing when He is being good and when He is not. We would spend our lives trying to figure out if what is happening in our lives right now is part of God's goodness or not part of God's goodness. In order for us to be able to trust God, we have to know that He is good, and if we have to know that God is good, then God has to be good at all times and in all circumstances and yes, with all persons. 

Even the wicked ones. 

It's a tough pill to swallow, but I'm going to be honest and say...I'm glad He is. 

I'm glad God is good to not just His own people because for the first decade and a half of my life, I was not one of His people. I didn't grow up in the church. I didn't go to church. I didn't have a Bible. I didn't know anything about God. I knew that the guy who lived next door who went to church didn't want me chasing loose balls onto his lawn and that he spent a lot of his time spraying the cracks in the sidewalk for weeds and that I'm pretty sure he's the one who reported us to the city for spray painting bases on the cul-de-sac for our pick-up games of kickball. 

When I was growing up, we made fun of Christians. I never thought in my wildest imagination that I would ever be one. 

And yet, by the grace of God. No, by the goodness of God. 

By all of the little good things in my life that couldn't be explained any other way. By the little tokens of favor that kept showing up from "the universe." By the kindnesses of other Christians that I met along the way. By over and over and over again, all of these little good things that didn't make any sense if there wasn't a God...a God who must be thoroughly good because He was good even to me, even before I knew Him. 

Friends, it's hard to see good things happen to "bad" people, but I'm here to tell you that bad people don't become good people unless good things happen to them. The lost don't become found unless good things happen to them. The wayward don't become the faithful unless God is good to them. They come to know that God is good and then, over time, that He even loves them. And then, they can't help but become His. 

So I don't worry about the good things that happen in this world, no matter where I find them or under what circumstances. Because they simply remind me of the truth that I know: God is good. 

And I am so thankful for that.