OUR GOOD AND JUST GOD

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them.

Hebrews 6:10

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

God is good...all the time.

Maybe you’ve heard that a time or two before because it’s absolutely true. There is no one as good to us as our Maker and Master, the Lord God Almighty.

And yet, there are multitudes of people who willingly choose to reject this, many of whom would completely deny God’s existence altogether. These skeptics would try and make a case that if there was really a good God then why do people suffer the consequences of suffering or evil or tragedy or death by any number of natural disasters. Why would people struggle with poverty or homelessness or hunger or any number of social issues we see happening on a large scale in our world if there really was a God who was good?

Perhaps if you look at this from a completely worldly perspective, then I can see where people would be deceived into what they believe. After all, Satan, who we know through the scriptures is the master of lies, makes his home in the world and ever seeks to draw people away from God. He’s been doing it for the ages and he’s skilled. Very skilled.

This is why people need to turn to the Lord and seek His take on things. They can do this through prayer and the study of God’s holy Word. If they did this, they would only need to read the first few chapters to understand two things:

1. God made everything in all Creation and He perfectly provided everything for His Creation to not only survive but thrive.

2. God didn’t create sin. The first man and woman did when they, in willful disobedience, ate what God had forbidden and from that point on, there was a big issue: a once flawlessly created people now all tainted and flawed, sinners before a God who hated sin.

From the time of the fall on, created people have rebelled against the God who made them, the omnipotent Lord of all lords. This continuous display of insubordination deserves nothing good from a God who is perfectly good. In fact, if God wasn’t so merciful, He would simply wipe every person off the face of the earth. If you don’t believe He can do it, go back to the Book of Genesis and go forward from the creation story to the account about Noah, the ark, and the great flood. It was an event of epic proportion as God wiped all people except for Noah, his sons, their wives, and the paired animals onboard. In fact, after it was over, God promised to never do it again and placed a rainbow in the sky as a constant reminder of His promise. Remember that a good God did this the next time you see one appear.

Indeed, God doesn’t give us what we deserve. In fact, He blesses us far more than He should. As we read in our verse for today from Hebrews 6, our God isn’t unjust. Rather, His judgment is always faultless as He wages it against those of us who are always at fault. No one should want that judgment, either in this present life or in the eternal one to come, an eternal life that will go one of two ways for every single person on earth and there only is a second option because of the goodness of God.

For in the very words of Jesus, God (His Father and ours) so loved the world that He gave up His one and only Son (Jesus) so that whoever would believe in Him wouldn’t perish but gain everlasting life (John 3:16). Because of sin, all mankind was headed for eternal damnation and torment (aka Hell) but our good God made the way to be pardoned from His judgment through belief in His Son, the One who He surrendered as a final atoning sacrifice to cover the sins of the world, and that includes yours and mine. He instituted and executed the means for a person to avoid Hell and gain Heaven...and only a God of infinite goodness would do such a thing.

God is love and whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them (1 John 4:16). The scriptures proclaim this. In other words, when a person loves God, obedient to His word and will while accepting His offer of salvation through Jesus, then His love and goodness becomes theirs. They become a reflection of the good God they serve and then use what He has blessed them with to make a difference in the lives of others.

Perhaps then the issue with the world isn’t that God lacks goodness but people lack God and in doing so aren’t good.

Think about it.

How much wealth is there in the world today?

You won’t be able to give me a number because I don’t know that we’re counting that high on a regular basis but let me say this...

Our good God has given His creation more than enough riches to take care of every single need that’s out there.

There’s no excuse for people being homeless or not having food to eat or medicine to treat illnesses.

There’s no excuse for people living in fear of evil when we have more than enough money in the world to make every one safe and secure. Money put into the right places would overwhelm and eradicate evil if we invested in it.

Diseases will happen but in places where they are preventable because of unsanitary conditions, change can happen.

The point is that we need to do a serious look within ourselves as a world population before we start to flippantly blame God for all our problems. We need to get back to the imagery of the first Christian church which launched in Jerusalem at the end of Acts, chapter 2. There, after Peter delivers his first public proclamation of the Gospel after Pentecost almost 3,000 new believers were baptized, affirming their belief in Jesus Christ.

What was one of the things they did immediately after?

The Bible tells us they sold their possessions and used the money to help those who were in need, an action activated by the Spirit of their good God who brought them salvation.

What can we do today?

We can follow their lead...one person at a time. If everyone did their part, committing themselves to give to someone who was in need as they are able, we could easily solve almost all our social problems in a heartbeat and collectively make the world a better place in the process. My prayer is that you will pray today and ask our good God how you can do just that, no matter how much He has blessed you with.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.