From Speechless, written by Lisa Hoffmann (aka Alabastersky)

For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. – Psalm 103:11-12

God is good, all the time. For anyone who has ever thought “it’s just a cliché”, this one is for you!  God is not just good, He is intrinsically good, and I hope to offer you a glimpse of just how much.

Think of darkness and light… The book of first John affirms to us that there is no darkness in God:

“These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete. This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:4-5

From this passage we begin to comprehend that all that is light is all that is God; and all that is darkness is all that is the absence of God.  How can we know what is associated, then, with light?

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. James 1:17

Everything that is good and perfect! Imagine this with me if you will. Every good and perfect gift includes life itself, redemption, salvation, and so much more. Each gift to us is like a reflection of God Himself – facets within facets. The gift of redemption alone holds all that is love, all that is joy, all that is rest, all that is forgiveness. No condemnation but rather justification by faith in Him alone.

Darkness then represents everything that is not found in the light. Evil, sickness and death, hatred, lies, slavery, unforgiveness and punishment – none of these dwell in light.

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” John 8:12

Think with me of this light and darkness as linear; a line that runs through your entire life and touches every decision you have made or will ever make. Imagine then that each decision turns you in the direction of either one or the other – towards light or darkness; life or death; blessing or cursing. This encapsulates the goodness of God in the very fact that He does not force one or the other on anyone, but has given you and I the freedom to choose the path we each will take.

Add to that line of free will the decisions of your father and mother, and theirs and theirs; and then add to that the decision of your children, and theirs and theirs.  The line continues and it does not even stop there.  Somehow this same line that runs generationally also runs in tight connection with all the other lines around you – those of your friends, neighbors, those within your community and even around the globe. If you are truly capturing the image of this then you will begin to see how each line somehow binds together with the next to form a culture and society.  This is what makes you and everything you do critical to everything and everyone around you.  You have a choice, and your entire life matters!

Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.  Ecclesiastes 4:12

The goodness of God does not even stop there!  You can see this same pattern of goodness in the very way all the physical, fundamental, and mathematical constants have been established within the foundation of creation (examples of these constants include gravity, the speed of light, the distance between earth and the sun, and so on – each representing those things that do not change from age to age). If any of them were off, even by a fraction, everything around us would be devastatingly and deadly different.  Thank God for establishing the constants, for without Him doing so we would not continue to exist; and they testify that we can emphatically trust that there are absolute truths in this world.

Herein is the wild part of the goodness of God.  Now that you have a glimpse of your line in connection with all others and everything else, take it one more step. Our Creator God has the unlimited capacity to run every single equation that could ever exist (even within a so-called string theory multi-verse) and, knowing the outcome of every single one infinitely, He created the universe we now live in. 

What this means is that He already knew the outcome of how my line would interact with your line, how my actions would impact those of my children, how generations past have impacted generations to come, and so on.  THIS is how He is able to take everything that happens in this fallen world and work it to the good of those who love Him.

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

And this is also how and why He chooses to establish boundaries, kings, and nations.

And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings. Acts 17:28

All of this reminds me of this verse in 2 Chronicles:

“Thus says God, ‘Why do you break the commandments of the Lord, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has forsaken you.’” 2 Chronicles 24:20b

Why is this important?  Because we have ALL been given the freedom to choose.  God wants us to choose Him freely, out of our own desire.  He goes to very great lengths to ensure that we get this choice all throughout history, even though the surface appearance of it is chaotic and messy, especially when our choices or the choices of others collide in negative ways.  The words that come out of our mouths carry a powerful weight of impact, aligning either with what God has said (blessing) or with what the enemy intends (cursing).

This is not predestination in a way that says, “you must”,
but in a way that says, “so be it”.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one. For anyone who wants to do a further study, chapters 27 and 28 of Deuteronomy reinforce the concept of the line of light and darkness, life and death, blessing and cursing.