Knowing God: Experience & Love Him

The Goodness of God (Psalm 31:19)

Assured that all our Lord’s requests
and plans are good.

Paul J. Bucknell

Series Introduction| Knowing God | The Revelatory God | Goodness of God | Holiness of God

Goodness of God handout pdf | Video

Life Questions | Genesis 1 & Goodness | Other Scripture & Goodness | Two Worldviews of Self | Difficulties Believing | Satan's Tactics | Handling Evil | Power of Goodness | Psalms 31:9 | Distinctive of God's Goodness | Good, Evil and God | Study Questions & Projects

Good, Evil and God

Purpose: Because of evil, people have a hard time comprending God's goodness. We present and simply answers some of these complex questions on good and evil so that we can get beyond this issue to believing in and delighting in God's goodness.

Questions on God’s goodness

It is difficult to trust that God is good when so much evil goes on around us. Many people simply believe other reasons for these things. They are not believing by faith in the Word of God but in other things and religions.

God is calling you to believe that He is always good. How do you explain trouble in the world? Although God created the world good, man has done evil. Now He wants to restore what is good through man.

The Lord redeemed man and reequipped him for doing good. This is largely how God will do good. “Ask what you wish, and He will do this.”

• If God is good, then why cannot unbelievers or unbelieving Christians not benefit from God’s goodness?

Actually, all of us greatly benefit from God’s goodness. God is patient toward all, not willing that any would perish (2 Peter 3:9). God shines the sun both on the wicked and good. (It would be an interesting world if the sun only shone on the righteous!)

“... For He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45).

The key issue is faith. When we believe in His goodness, then we can respond to it. But when there is doubt, we live as if He is not good and therefore cannot respond to Him.

• If God is good, then why doesn’t He improve things?

God stressed that He made everything good. He even showed us in Genesis 3 how sin entered the world because He knew we might be confused. Here are some points to believe.

God made everything good, even very good.

Satan tricked man into thinking what God did was inferior. Through this diabolical deception, sin and evil came into the world.

Man was and is unfaithful. Even today, when we have a choice between good and evil, do we always choose good? If God’s people constantly purposed to always choose good, then there would be a near instant revival of love outflowing to the world.

• Why doesn’t God do anything about all the war and people dying?

God did do a great lot by sending Jesus to die for our sins and restore us to fellowship with Him. The question is not what God should do, but what will we do?

Next page => Study Questions & Projects

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Biblical Foundations for Freedom ( BFF )

Rev. Paul J. Bucknell