“God is good.” This is a phrase we say and hear regularly, and it’s true, but usually only used when things are going well in a person’s life. However, when we say, “God is being so good to me right now” “God has been good to me” “In this season of my life, God is good” …there’s an emphasis on the situation that God is good at certain times, not always.

I read an article recently that told me I should always feel encouraged by Scripture. That sounds like a great plan, except for the fact that the Word of God is not a book of feel-good stories. In the Old Testament, we see a history of people – real, human people – clumsily, messily working their way through life until the coming of their promised Savior. They took one step forward and two steps back, if they were lucky enough to take a step forward at all. By the time I make it to the New Testament, I’m desperate for Jesus to come fix this mess! My heart gets heavy with each parallel I see between sin in the cultures of the Bible and sin in our world today. “Have we learned nothing?” is my most common thought. Often I walk away from Scripture feeling the weight of human depravity; […]