“Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures for ever. Who can proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord or fully declare his praise? Ps. 106:1-2.
This passage tells us something that seems so simple, yet it is so profound…that God is good. However, many people question the goodness of God, when things happen that they don’t understand. They can’t believe, that if God truly loved them, that He would allow this particular thing to happen. They make no distinction between God and the Devil, at that point. They judge or conclude that God is evil and begin to ‘turn away from Him.’ Unwittingly, when they do so, they turn the only other direction there is—towards the one who is truly evil. Their faith is based on their own current understanding and their own human, frail, earthly, temporal, ignorant mind, tells them that what is happening or has happened is evil…that God must have allowed it, so, God must be evil.
However, God is so great that He can and does use the Devil for His purposes. Rom. 8:28. Gen. 50:20-21 NASU says, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.” How could anyone consider, that being dumped for dead in a well, sold into slavery, falsely accused, imprisoned and rejected by family and friends be viewed as for good? Yet, it was for good. It worked in Joseph a character and a development that God used later for great good! Ps. 105:17-24. How could what happened to Jesus be viewed as for good? Yet it was.
As difficult as human suffering and trouble are to understand, God is still good. Evil is not good. They are not the same, but God can and does use evil for good. The next part of the verse above tells us that God’s love endures forever. When we are unfaithful, uncaring, unloving, discouraged, suffering, in pain, conflicted, destitute, doubtful and feeling alone…God is still saying, ‘I still love you.’ When we are reacting carnally and ignorantly, to His loving corrective measures, He is still saying, ‘I still love you.’ Heb. 12:1-10. When we are ‘under the attack of the (evil) Devil, God is still saying, ‘I still love you.’ His love never fades, whether we perceive it or not through the ‘lens’ of our trial.
This great Omniscient, Loving God desires us to receive His love, and respond to whatever is happening, with right responses…humility, praise, adjustment, dependency, devotion, thanksgiving, faith and obedience. These responses are our part, in this loving relationship. If we do these things whether we fully understand something or not, we are living in the faith that pleases Him. Heb. 11:6. He then, comes at His time, with the reward of that faith—His Divine favour, just as He did with Joseph. He hasn’t changed.
Let us do our part and come into a ‘large and spacious place’ of blessing and joy!