We often hear people use the phrase God is good all the time. All the time God is good. Yet, in today's culture, we also find people asking the question, “If God is so good, why does he allow bad things to happen to good people?” That is a reasonable question, but it does not change the fact that God is perfectly good all the time.

Don't think I haven’t asked that question myself since my diagnosis of Parkinson's five years ago. I had given myself, my entire life, to ministering the love and goodness of God to anyone who had been willing to listen and expected my later years to be a bit more stress free. That didn’t quite pan out for me, though…

So how did I answer that question for myself? First of all I had to come to the place of understanding that God is God and I am not. Then I had to come to the place of understanding He is perfect in all His ways. Absolutely holy. Absolutely good. Absolutely able to take even the harsh realities of life and use them somehow for my good and for His glory.

In the beginning, we must remember God gave man a free will and mankind chose to follow his own path and chose the path of sin. Sin brought with it all sorts of calamity, consequences, sicknesses and the ill-will of mankind to humanity. We brought sin into the world…not God. We cannot blame God for the bad things that happened to us, but we can know his presence and his love and his goodness in the midst of those occurrences. God made a way for us to overcome sin in our lives by virtue of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross to pay the debt we owed due to our sin. In other words. He is so good and his love is so massive that He thought we were worth the life of his own Son. Our God is a good God.

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to [His] purpose. Romans 8:28 NASB

Today I am sharing the story behind a song the Lord gave me regarding His goodness way back on February 4, 1998. Melinda and I have a very good friend, Tamara, whose mother, Ann, had become ill with cancer. As the cancer spread through Ann's body, the family drew very close to one another and found much peace and solace in God's presence.

At the time the song came to me, Ann and her husband, Tamara's father, Richard, had other concerns in addition to the diagnosis of cancer. Of major concern was their son, Tony. Tony was born with both mental and physical handicaps and at the time this song was born, he had the mental capacity of a toddler. This meant that Richard and Ann had not had much of a social life during a major part of their marriage. You see, Tony was 28 years old at that time and still required someone to change his diaper and feed him and take care of him. Ann had been a major part of that care. No one would've blamed them if they had opted for some type of institutional care, but Ann and Richard chose to care for their son themselves.

Knowing her time on earth was short, my pastor and I went to spend some time talking and praying with Ann and Richard. Our plan was to try to bring some comfort and encouragement to their souls, but after talking with Ann, we came to realize that Ann was bringing comfort and encouragement to OUR souls!

I remember asking Ann if she was prepared to be with the Lord. Her answer was, “Yes, I am ready.” Upon hearing her response, I felt compelled to ask her if she had any regrets about the way she had been limited in her ability to live her life as fully and freely as she had hoped due to the constant demand to care for her son. Her answer stunned me.

She said, “I have absolutely no regrets. God has been with me every step of the way and caring for my son has been one of the greatest blessings of my life. God is good. He has been so good to me.”

Needless to say, I was reduced to tears and this song came pouring out of my heart later that day. I was able to share it with Ann before she went to be with the Lord. The story behind this song still sends chills up and down my spine…and has taken on a whole new meaning for me in my own battle with illness. I can honestly say God has been…God still is…God will be good to me.

The LORD will send His goodness in the daytime;

And His song will be with me in the night,

A prayer to the God of my life.

Psalm 42:8 NASB

The minute we decide God is not a good God, we step into a mindset of misery and self-dependence that leads to self-focus and, often, to self-pity. Our God is so good that He is able to take what the enemy means for evil in our lives and use it for something good in our lives. Our God is very, very good to us.

I certainly believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD

In the land of the living.

Wait for the LORD;

Be strong and let your heart take courage;

Yes, wait for the LORD.

Psalm 27:13-14 NASB

Regardless of what the world says about the goodness of God or about his ability to love us, let's take him at His word. Our God is good. Our God loves us with the massiveness of the universe. Our God is for us and wants nothing but what is best for us. In the coming days, I challenge you, myself included, to put on a heart of gratitude even in the midst of whatever dire or painful circumstances life may throw our way. Bottom line? God is good…all the time.

Dennis Jernigan

To hear The Dennis Jernigan Podcast version of this story, go to https://www.patreon.com/posts/you-are-good-to-100595622

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