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Living Beyond Yourself – Week 7

May 12, 2006 by Janice

This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy here.

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Our Tender Hearted Lord

Is God Good?

I am sure this question can stir up some emotional debates. I can just about hear the heated arguments of those wounded souls who believe that God has deserted them and the impassioned appeals of those trying so hard to convince them otherwise.

And then there are those sitting quietly at the sidelines, listening and wondering. Doubts are eroding their faith. Maybe God just isn’t that loving? Maybe He is an angry, vengeful God?

Where are you?

Do you believe whole-heartedly that God is good – without evil and the source of all that is love and beauty? Or do you believe that He is cruel and absent, ignoring the agony of people? Or do you just waver between the two – hoping that He is merciful and loving, but fearing that He is not.

I believe He is good, merciful, loving…the list goes on. But there are moments when I hurt so deeply as I look around me at the suffering and wonder – how, how, how does this all work? How does God feel about this all? What is He doing?

This week in Beth Moore’s LBY study on the Fruit of the Spirit, we looked at the gifts of kindness (chrestotes – “tender concern for others”) and goodness (agathosune – “benevolent; active goodness”.) As usual, the study is deep in scripture and insights and I can only briefly touch on some of the highlights here.

What impacted me most were the verses and passages in scripture that reveal the loving, compassionate, empathetic Father that our God is. It is so tempting to look at the suffering of the world and conclude that God just doesn’t care as much as we do. We would stop the pain and yet He doesn’t. Therefore He is just not that good or compassionate.

But that is us at our limited vantage point trying to make sense of the divine. It is beyond us to fully comprehend free will and salvation. It is beyond us to understand why God allows the world to continue. And it is beyond us to grasp what God sacrificed and suffered in the life, death and resurrection of Christ.

In scripture we have some precious promises and examples of how loving and empathetic our God is. He does not love us from a distance and leave us alone as we cry. He does not ignore the pain and suffering of His children.

In the study, Beth assures us that God is a nurturing parent. The first story she used to illustrate this point surprised me. It was the story of Sarah and Hagar (Genesis 21:1-21.) I often think of this story as such a tale of sadness that I never saw this insight. But when Hagar is alone and desperate, watching her son die in the desert, God comes to her. As Beth puts it,

“God unleashed His loving kindness. He refreshed and restored both mother and child; in the place of an absent father, God vowed to abide with the boy as he grew…it seems we witness not only the compassion and sympathy of God, but also the empathy of God. He could relate to her pain and need, so He responded to Hagar as a loving God and as a fellow parent.”

God knows suffering. He endured the agony as a parent watching his blameless Son suffer and die. And He watches the ongoing pain of his precious children here on earth, while they refuse Him and curse Him. Yes, God knows the pain of a hurting parent. And so He responds to Hagar and to us with empathy and mercy as a loving and disciplining Father.

Then Beth goes on to show us more scripture revealing God’s tender heart towards His children. (empasis in the following verses is mine)

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.” Isaiah 49 15-16

“The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”
Zephaniah 3:17

“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me…It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent done to feed them.” Hosea 11:1-4

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”
1 John 3:1

Yes, the God in Heaven – the Almighty Creator – actually cares about us little people down here. And as a loving parent, he aches for us to know His love and to return it. He shows us this sacrificial love in Christ – in his suffering and in how Christ loved us. Christ revealed even more of the Father’s tender, unconditional love and we can be assured that He does love us and that He is so very, very good.

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:4-5

But there is more…

God does not stop with words and promises of kindness and love. He does. Throughout these preceding passages and the entire Bible, God reaches out and loves us through action and sacrifice.

And of course, He calls us to do the same.

Kindness must be accompanied by goodness – agathosune (“…character energized, expressing itself in…benevolence, active good.”)

Goodness requires action. God is good and He actively expresses that goodness through action. And His plan includes us also responding to goodness and living out our faith in good works and demonstrative love.

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Ephesians 2:10

Yes, as we watch the evening news, we may be tempted to despair. But I urge you to not stop there but to look deeper, because beyond what we can see with our earthly eyes there is a God who loves us and works to save us from despair and pain.

And as His children, who have experienced his mercy, love and salvation, we need to remember that we are called to live out His kindness and goodness in action to a world that so desperately needs it.

Dear Lord,
Thank you for your kindness and goodness.Thank you that you love us so deeply. And please forgive me Lord when I doubt that love. Empower me Lord to actively live out goodness and holler at me when I fail to do the good works you have planned for me to do. I know I fail you and others so often God. I am so sorry. Thank you for your mercy.

Addie Heather* Carol
M Rach Jeana
Jenn Amanda MamaB
GiBee Boomama Maria
Blair Heather Nancy
Janna Flipflop Robin
Sherry Patricia Tara
Lauren HolyMama! Faith
Christy Eph2810 Karin
Leann Rachel Janice

This is a list of the women participating in the study and the links
to their blogs. New postings on the study will be published for
the next ten weeks, between Friday 8pm – Saturday 8am.
Please feel free to visit each of us and comment. Everyone is
welcome to participate in this discussion as we seek to live
beyond ourselves. May God bless you richly from the hearing of
His Word.

Technorati Tags: Christianity, Bible, Religion, Beth Moore

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About Janice

Janice is co-founder of 5 Minutes For Mom. She's been working online since 2003 and is thankful her days are full of social media, writing and photography.

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12 Comments

  1. evangelist naurus says

    June 7, 2006 at 7:46 am

    shalom,
    hi there i would like to know that does your ministry will extend cooperation in pakistan
    where there is a greater need to further enhance the kingdom of god and equip the body of belivers
    particularly youth

    if you have any desire to do so kindly let us know about it
    god bless,
    evangelist naurus
    in his love

    Reply
  2. Jenn says

    May 15, 2006 at 8:21 pm

    Thank you Lord indeed! Oh, I can’t wait to do this session…I’m so behind 🙁

    Reply
  3. colleen says

    May 15, 2006 at 5:06 am

    I don’t believe in a personal God, such as a He. But I do believe in a Divine Blessed Source and that goodness and love prevail and those are our states. I think that is what people mean by God. I don’t think things are good and/or bad. I think it’s all for our own growth. We can’t control circumstances but can control how we react to them and I choose to see growth and meaning in all events.

    Reply
  4. Chaotic Mom says

    May 15, 2006 at 3:15 am

    I didn’t even think about last week’s study from this point of view. I have OFTEN wondered why there is so much pain in this world. My head knows why, but my heart questions God at times, too. Thank you for your great insight and commentary. 😉

    Reply
  5. Janna says

    May 14, 2006 at 6:59 pm

    Janice, I too am amazed by God’s tender heart for us. When I read the story of how God looked down and had mercy upon Hagar and Ishmael, it really touched my heart as well. God is good. Thanks for your excellent post!

    Reply
  6. Patricia says

    May 14, 2006 at 12:22 pm

    Excellent post, Janice! This was a hard, yet encouraging, lesson. God is always good, but sometimes it is difficult to believe that when we don’t understand why He allows the pain and suffering in our lives and others.

    Reply
  7. Stacey says

    May 13, 2006 at 7:32 pm

    I’ve never done this Beth Moore study, but I just wanted to say that I believe that God is ALWAYS good, loving, just, and merciful. Sometimes we just can’t understand why certain things happen in our lives and why God would allow us to endure pain. We have to remember that God knows what is best for us, even though we may not always agree or see the whole picture. God works for the good of those who love him and we have to trust in that and remember that His thoughts are not our thoughts. It’s hard to do that sometimes, but those are the times we need His strength the most; it saddens me when people turn away from God just because something in their life is not going the way they think it should. I guess that’s what faith is all about-believing when it seems like there’s no reason to believe.

    Reply
  8. Heather* says

    May 13, 2006 at 10:15 am

    Thank God I’m not the only one with a long post! 🙂 Ha ha!

    That was great.

    Reply
  9. eph2810 says

    May 13, 2006 at 10:09 am

    Oh my – what a wonderful post and what a witness you are for His love. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts in ‘public’.
    Yeah – His love is amazing for us.

    Reply
  10. Lauren says

    May 13, 2006 at 6:48 am

    Yep, encouraged is the word I would use also. And God knows just who else needs to hear your encouraging words and He’ll be sending them by soon. Great post.

    Reply
  11. boomama says

    May 13, 2006 at 6:18 am

    Janice, This is just a beautifully written post – such a true reflection of the tender heart of God. It is obvious that your own heart is tender for those who are seeking and questioning – and what a merciful response you offer. I’m encouraged.

    Reply
  12. Sandra says

    May 13, 2006 at 6:09 am

    Loved your post this morning. It’s so true that we get so caught up in the bad and the pain and we tend to blame God for it all and wonder why he won’t do something about it.

    What we fail to see is that he IS doing something, he is always working on us, even through those huge heartbreaks.

    I’ve learnt NOT to judge him and demand that he does something, and I’ve learnt not to blame him. Life is what it is, there’s ups and downs, there’s suffering and heartache but I think it’s all part of our journey to better ourselves and to get closer to Him.

    Thank you for the great post, it was just what I needed this morning 🙂

    Reply

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