And if not He is still good

If something doesn’t go the way you’ve prayed for, planned, or expected- do you truly believe that God is still good?

There have been times in my life when I have doubted the goodness of God because of my circumstances. I believed that goodness only came in the form of getting what I had prayed for and I allowed what I prayed for to become what I expected from God. This created a false belief that God was only good if he blessed me with the things I had asked him for. It also lead me to believe that if God did something outside of what I deemed as “good” then he was no longer good.

I let my let down expectations become a false representation of who I believed God was.

But here’s the thing- the goodness of God doesn’t always fit into the box of what we perceive as good. Something we may see as a loss, God may see as a future win. Things we call broken, God makes whole. His definition of good and our definition of good are often not the same. And that’s okay! Because really- who are we to say that what God is doing is not good?

“And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for the good of those who are called according to his purpose.” -Romans 8:28

I’ve seen his goodness in ways that I’ve never imagined. What if I told you that the biggest form of goodness I’ve seen in my own life came in the form of heartbreak. That it was only after endless nights of heartache that I was able to see his goodness. Truly- the lowest point in my life became the most beautiful one in my story.

Even now in the midst of my own struggle, I still see his goodness shining all around me. Specifically, in the lives of people that have dealt with hardship for months and even years now. In awe, I’ve watched as he’s turned what they had seen as an obstacle into a blessing. His goodness was being poured out on them the whole time-when in the moment they couldn’t see it themselves!

In seeing all of this, I am reminded that God is still good even if he chooses something for me that I wouldn’t have chosen for myself. His goodness isn’t reliant on my circumstances but by who he is.

And if not, he is still good. Do you believe it?