The Core Temptation: God Is Not Good
Tuesday Thought 6.11.24
The core of every temptation is an enticement to believe God is not good. Isn’t a temptation toward revenge a belief that God will not bring justice or that his justice won’t be sufficient or timely? Satan wants us to believe God is unjust and therefore not good. Isn’t a temptation toward lust a belief that God’s commands about loving people rather than using them is an unnecessary restriction on our pleasure? Satan wants us to believe God’s commands are not for our good and therefore, He is not good. Isn’t a temptation towards pride a belief that we merit adulation and that we’re better than others? Satan wants us to believe God is not treating us as we deserve and therefore He is not good. The goodness of God can be hard to cling to when our desires are thwarted. And yet, the security of our life with God, now and forever, rests on his goodness.
The Lord bless you and keep you all your days.
Wow I wanted to read and learn more!
Wow! Karen, I had a visceral reaction to the title of your post. The reason being that I have wrestled for years over believing that God is "good". Decades of trauma, pain, and loss convinced me that a "good God" would not have permitted these assaults on my life. But now I see that I was deceived by the false God of my own imagination, a God of my own making whom I could predict and control, not the Almighty Creator of the Universe Who knew my name before the heavens and earth were even created. Now, having been "born again" I see the evidence of God's goodness all over my life, including the broken parts. Fore it is the brokenness which makes me more malleable to His will and most useful to His purposes in reaching out to others. Oh, friends, God is very, very good! But beware, as C.S.Lewis speaks through Susan in The Chronicles of Narnia, "Aslan [God] is NOT TAME, but He is very good".