God is good. All the time. Isn’t that what we say? Yet many people feel as if God’s goodness—while certainly true all the time—isn’t reflected in their lives except in careful doses. That’s because we face hardships and interpret them as measures of his attitude toward us. When we have few, he’s pleased; when we have many, he must be disciplining us. We tie his favor to our experience.
When that’s how we see God, that’s how we behave toward others. We mete out goodness carefully, lavishing it on those who make us feel free and good and withholding it from those against whom we hold a grudge. We treat others according to the way we perceive his treatment of us. And that perception can be awfully distorted sometimes.
Here’s the truth: God is working out everything in the lives of those who love him for their good (Romans 8:28). If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? (Romans 8:31-32 NLT). And if this is his disposition toward us, and we are called to be like him, shouldn’t it be our disposition toward ourselves and others?
If you want to be like God, overflow with goodness. All the time. Be kind, love in word and action, bless those who curse you. According to Jesus, these things will make you a lot like your Father (Matthew 5:45). And being like your Father will show his goodness to a world that needs it desperately.
