Only God is Really, Truly Good

• It’s not uncommon for humans to focus on if and when and how God is being good.

• This is especially true if one is in the process of learning about God. (However, this is something seasoned believers can do too.)

• We ask questions like:

• Why isn’t God being good in this situation?

• Why isn’t He answering my prayers in a good way?

• It seems like He’s withholding goodness; why is that? Is He punishing someone? Punishing me?

• Why didn’t God come through with more goodness?

• These are all natural questions to pose and wrestle with - particularly if you’re trying to understand who God is.

• And God welcomes questions! He doesn’t mind at all.

• James 1:5 (NLT) says, “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.”

• The Message translation says it this way: “If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought.”

• Never feel as if God thinks less of you - or is going to punish you - because you’re asking questions. Even if you’re doubting Him. 

  
  

• At the same time, however, these types of questions all fall under one foundational biblical truth that is often unknown or overlooked. 

• And that is: only God is truly good.

• The question isn’t if, or when, or how. It’s who.

• It’s about God’s character.

• Who is the one being in the universe that is really, truly, 100% good? 

• God.

• But in our quest to learn about who God truly is, or in our struggle to understand why He’s not acting in a way that we desire or prefer, we can end up judging Him (and His character) through our very limited human lens.

• We have an idea of what goodness should look like from a human perspective, and so we look at God through that lens. 

• We have our own ideas about how and when God should be good, so we look at Him through our own expectations.

• We may have also been taught things about God that skews how we inherently understand Him, which then feeds into our skewed perspective and the resulting anger and mistrust.

• And we’re also sinners living in a broken world, right? 

1. As Romans 3:23 (NLT) says, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”

2. Our view can be skewed by our fallen nature. Plus, we’re likely carrying wounds caused by certain experiences or as a result of other people’s sin.

• Yet all the while, God is the only truly good being in the universe. 

• Because only God is holy. 

• To be holy means to 100% set apart from evil, which includes sin and every kind of wickedness.

• 1 Samuel 2:2 (NLT) says, “No one is holy like the Lord! There is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.”

• 1 John 1:5 (NLT) says, “This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.”

• We may find ourselves focusing on how God is good. But the truth is that God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - is the only fully good being we can count on.

  
  
  

• The first part of the struggle is understanding God’s true character.

• One of the foundational elements of His character is that He’s holy.

• But there are other characteristics that are important to understand.

• If you’d like to accelerate your understanding, I have a series of mini courses designed to help in this area.

• On January 2, 2025, I’ll be launching Relate Escape Place which will be a safe, secure, and focused community that will also include mini courses and challenges.

• The first three mini courses, which are immediately available when you join the community, are: Decode God’s Love; Demystify God’s Character; and Journey with Jesus.

• If you’re in need of a clear, focused, biblically-based, and non-overwhelming picture of who God really is, and how to apply that to your relationship with Him, these mini courses are exactly what you need!

• Each mini course is designed to provide strategic breakthrough in digestible, bite-size pieces. You can complete each mini course in a week!

  
  

• Now, the second part of this overall struggle is understanding (and accepting) that God’s ways are higher than our own.

• Isaiah 55:8-9 (NLT) says: “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.  “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

• God doesn’t just want us to blindly accept this. He didn’t create us to be mindless, subservient minions. 

• But as you learn about God’s character, you’ll come to naturally understand more about how He works within our fallen world - and our messy, complicated lives.

• For example, over the years I’ve learned that God’s dreams and plans for me are often much larger than mine. 

• As a human, I tend to focus on the present. But God exists in the past, present, and future all at the same time. (Something I explain in my mini courses.) And, He’s the Creator of the universe who loves me more than I could ever imagine.

• So He’s got a much bigger, larger perspective and therefore game plan. 

• There are times when I’m frustrated because of a certain season or because I don’t understand why God isn’t doing something. But then later, I look back in hindsight and see that God was preparing me for this next up-leveling step.

• I just didn’t realize it at the time ‘cause I was laser-focused on a handful of things.

• This is a much bigger topic, so we can’t dive too deeply into it in this episode.

• But, again, the more you learn about God’s character, the more you’ll naturally start to better understand that God is for you - not against you. 24/7/365.

• So if you’re eager to go from where you are to rapidly transforming your understanding of God’s character, get in on those mini courses! 

• Completely change your life in three weeks! (And forge real connections with other women who are on the same journey as you!)