Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?
Psalm 23:6 Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the LORD forever.
Romans 2:4 Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?
Every one of us has experienced God's goodness in their life to some degree and most of us have experienced a very high level of God's goodness in comparison to thousands of other people that have lived. But despite how good he is God's people always need to be reminded of this fact.
We have a difficult time appreciating the goodness of God, it goes all the way back to the garden of Eden, no matter how good we have it we always think there is more that we should have. Living in the garden was the greatest experience of God's goodness that mankind has ever known but that didn't guarantee the best outcome.
If Adam and Eve can feel that there is something that they were missing then we are surely guaranteed to doubt the vast amount of God's goodness as well. In our social media world we have the ability to compare ourselves and the stuff that we have with a multitude of other people. We need a way to stay focused when we have the fear of missing out that causes us to doubt God's goodness.
Taste
Psalm 34:8 Taste and see that the LORD is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!
To focus on God's goodness you need to taste it and taste it again just like you would taste again and again a delicious food. Don't be satisfied with just the aroma, don't walk by the kitchen and catch a whiff, step in and grab a plate and have a taste!
The joy of tasting is a personal experience, somebody else can help you know a little bit about the taste but you must have your own taste. The flavor is something that you can know only through your own experience. A taste this good should motivate you to taste it again and again.
Trust
Nahum 1:7 The LORD is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in him.
Thankfully the most powerful being is also the most good! Very few people with power are very kind, if you or I were powerful we would probably do like everybody else and use it for our own advantage, but thankfully the most powerful is perfectly good.
If the most powerful was any less good we couldn't trust him enough to draw near, we wouldn't have a strong refuge that we can trust and draw close to.
We need to remember that we cannot measure the goodness of God with problem free living. The person with the most trouble in this life may be living the most in God's will. Just like the religious leaders that Jesus rebuked, we cannot accurately discern why they have the trouble so we should not blame them for their situation. Nobody in the Bible was rewarded with an easy life as a reward for obedience.
Isaiah 48:10 I have refined you, but not as silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering.
The goodness of God is always there, even in suffering, our holiness is usually becoming more perfect in difficulty. This is a reality that will change your perspective of "good" and "bad" circemstances.
How can anything be bad if God is using all things for my good? (Romans 8:28, Hebrews 12:10) We all want the easy life but the most important thing to God is for us to be like him.
A more difficult truth to accept is maybe the hard time you are going through has nothing to do with you? Just maybe your country, your church or your family is being disciplined and you are affected by what God is doing in others. How much did good people suffer in the Old Testament because the rest of the group was being punished by God?
A great example of this is Joseph in an Egyptian prison or Daniel and his friends in Babylon. We focus everything on ourselves but God's story is not all about us.
Treasure
Ephesians 1:7-8 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.
To remember God's goodness we need to treasure the most important gift ever! God made the most extravagant purchase ever, what an incredibly high price for such lowly, undeserving creatures.
You may be so kind that you would die for your family or a small group of friends but God showed us perfect kindness by taking his perfect wrath upon himself, through his perfect son. God's awesome goodness could stop there and we should be eternally grateful but there is more goodness coming our way eternally if we accept Jesus sacrifice. (Romans 8:32)
1 John 4:9-10 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
The greatest gift, the one that I really needed the most, is the reason we celebrate Christmas but his arrival was just the beginning of the story of God's plan to destroy the work of Satan so that everything bad can be made good. Don't take his kindness for granted.
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