What good is God?

After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. Job 3:1

In his book What Good is God? Doug Herman tells about his white-knuckle encounter with pain and difficulty. He says, “Not only did the evil of tremendous suffering rampage my life. My wife suffered from the HIV virus...and Ashli was born an AIDS baby. Both Evon and Ashli suffered terribly before dying within eight months of each other, leaving me with a little boy to raise alone.”

Looking back over that dark night of the soul when Doug prayed and screamed until he was emotionally exhausted, he is convinced that what you think of God and how great is your knowledge of Him before the storm determines how you come through it. 

“What good is God when He doesn’t provde safey from the storms?” he asks, then answers his own question, affirming that “God is all-powerful, and His perfect love is as great as His power. His goodness encompasses the eternal hope He offers, that supersedes the horror of our storms. Here we embrace newfound trust, the pillar of our peace in the midst of the storm.”

Remind yourself that God has not made you a target of abuse, nor has He lost sight of your need, nor turned a deaf ear to your cry. God never promised to exempt us from the terror of living in a broken world, but rather He promised to be with us when we go through the darkness and the difficultry, There are times when you must not doubt all your beliefs, nor believe all your doubts.

Remember that nothing lasts forever. The sun eventually shines. The resurrection followed the crucifixion and the long night is eventually driven away by the pink hues of the rising sun.

Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their cry; the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.Psalm 34:11-17