Why do Christians say, "God is good"? Because He is.
Why do people believe God is a bad God? Due to famines, wars, shootings and violence that take place every day in this world, many assume that God must be bad. They think He is allowing these events as punishment. They believe we anger Him so He sends down tornadoes, hurricanes and every bad thing to strike us.
People have gotten this impression from the Old Testament. There we see God sending a flood to wipe out the evil people of Noah's time. Though He did save those who He deemed righteous (Genesis 7).
Let's see why this took place:
In the Garden of Eden, God made a man, Adam, and woman, Eve (Genesis 1-2). He told Adam not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The serpent (Satan in disguise) beguiled Eve into eating of the fruit, then she gave it to Adam, who could have refused the fruit but didn't. That day they sinned. Through that act of disobedience, sin entered into this world (Genesis 3).
God is a God of justice. Just as a judge has to prosecute a criminal act, God has to prosecute sin.. However, He, also being Love, hated to see His creations suffer, so He sent His only Begotten Son, Jesus, to Earth to be born of a virgin. Mary gave birth to Jesus (Genesis 2:1). While on Earth, He grew up and went to the Cross for us(Matthew 27).
Only a sinless person could die for the sins of every human being--past, present and future.
After being beaten and bruised, the Roman soldiers nailed Jesus to a cross. God judged Jesus, who had never sinned, for our transgressions. He put every curse of the law and all the effects of the curse, including poverty, every kind of sickness and disease, infidelity, strife and so much more on Jesus. Jesus paid the price we should have paid. He died for us (Matthew 27).
God didn't leave Him dead (Matthew 28. No, God raised Jesus from the dead, so that we might enjoy our lives to the full, until they overflow. That is how much God loves us. He did this for you, me and everyone else in this world, yet people still call Him a bad God.
Why is that? People feel that God causes people to starve in Africa, that He causes car crashes that take children's parents, that He causes tsunamis.
However sin entered this world through the act of disobedience on one man's part. When Adam sinned, he essentially handed the earth over to Satan and said, "It's yours now. Do with it as you please."
At that point, Satan became the ruler of the earth and the air. It wasn't until Jesus died that Jesus took back that authority and gave it to us (Luke 10:19).
Most of us do not know that we have that authority. We allow Satan to reek havoc on this earth even though he has no legal right to do so.
It's like a person being left an inheritance of one million dollars and then living poor, struggling in life, because he didn't know what he had inherited.
Most Christians are like that. We know Jesus died for us, but we think that's all in which we are entitled. When we accept Christ, we are entitled to so much more than merely being saved from going to hell.
We have authority over this world because of Jesus' death and resurrection. We have authority to do greater works than Jesus (John 14:12), but we don't. We do the same works as Jesus. Most of the time, we do less.
Jesus raised the dead (John 11:43-44). He healed the sick (Luke 4:40). He opened blind eyes (Matthew 9:27-30) and deaf ears (Mark 9:25-27). Why don't we? We don't know that we can speak to the weather patterns, like Jesus did, and command them to stop.
We don't speak to those mountains in our lives (Mark 11:23), and the lives of others, because we believe those problems will laugh at us.
However we have the authority over them. We need to start acting like who we are--children of the Most High God--endued with the power to cast out demons, speak with new tongues, lay hands on the sick and see them recover and raise the dead (Mark 16:17-18).
We blame God for what we have authority to control. The only thing God is guilty of is giving us the authority on this Earth.
When we read the Bible, we learn what it is that we have authority over and how to take that authority.
The Bible and the Holy Spirit are the only weapons we need against this world and the devil. Even though things look bad, our circumstances are subject to change to the Truth, the Word of God.
Adam and Eve sinned, and God still blessed them with children (Genesis 4:1-2, 25). Abraham slept with a woman besides his wife to make a baby (Genesis 16:11). Still God gave Abraham and his wife, Sarah, their promised son, Isaac (Genesis 17:19). The children of Israel turned away from God so many times by worshipping false gods, yet God delivered them every time.
God is faithful even when we are not. He is good to us when we don't deserve it. He is preparing a place for us in Heaven (John 14:2-3) when we die, if we accept Jesus.
He is a good God. It's the humans who He gave authority of this world to that messed it up. We blame God for being a bad God when we are the ones in charge of this earth.
The devil is defeated, so instead of fighting for the victory, we need to fight from the victory ground. We are not trying to get healed. We are healed by Jesus' stripes (I Peter 2:24). We are not trying to get rich. We are rich in Christ (2 Corinthians 8:9).
Stand up and take your authority today.
As an ebook, freelance and mystery writer, Annagail Lynes was born and raised in Phoenix Arizona. Her work has been published in 21st Century, SeaLetter, Christian Home and School, You! and many more online and offline publications. For Her Blog, go to http://atouchofdailywisdom.blogspot.com/ For Her Free Ezine, go to http://www.annagaillynes.net/currentezine.html
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