From Heart Break to Whole Again

DAY 3: A TRULY GOOD FATHER
Song: Goodness of God - Bethel Music

Why is there evil in the world? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why does God seem to not care about injustice? Why do I feel such deep pain? All valid questions. See, I think the root of all of these questions is the same. Is God good? As limited human beings, we have a difficult time answering this question. This question is essential, though. As a single woman, you will have to know that God is good before you can begin to trust that He has a good plan for your life. Honestly, we have to go back to the basics here, and it might be controversial or uncomfortable, but it is crucial that you know that God is good and that God has been good from the start. Let me tell you what convinced me.
God created the world so that there was no evil. He made a world without sin and sickness, without rape and murder, divorce and cheating. That was His original design. But perfect love is not forced love. Think about it, I could pick a nice guy out from a lineup and force you to marry him, and you know what, it might work out. But that isn’t perfect love. That isn’t the love that you have dreamed of your whole life. No, perfect love would be choosing a man and him choosing you back. It is the same way with our Father. He created us and wanted us to choose into relationship with Him, which is why He gave us a choice. On His perfect Earth, He put a tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He gave us a choice, and we chose sin. Eve chose to eat the fruit from the tree. And while, technically, the fall of humanity was not your fault, it might have been. Who knows who would’ve fallen prey to Satan’s schemes if not Eve? Don’t we fall victim to them every single day?
Go ahead and pull out your Bible and read Genesis 3.

Whether you think this story is factual or poetic, it is rich and relevant in our lives today. My favorite/ what I believe to be the most underrated part of this story is God’s immediate response to Adam and Eve after eating the fruit. It is so beautifully broken and brilliant. After Adam and Eve took a bite of the fruit, they felt shame for being naked for the first time. God’s reaction to Adam was not, “You disobeyed me. Now you have to die.” It was, “Where are you?” If you listen to the BEMA podcast, you’ve probably heard this before, but it’s incredible: the Hebrew word for “where” here is not interpreted correctly in English. We think, “is God joking? How does He not know where Adam is? Isn’t He all-knowing?” BUT interpretation is so vital in reading scripture. If something in scripture strikes you as odd, look up the original translation and get the context. The Hebrew word for “where” here assumes that something is supposed to be there but is now missing. So God is really saying, “Adam, where are you in relationship with me? You are not where you are supposed to be. You are supposed to be walking with me.”
And then the next question God asks Adam is ever so important, “Who told you that you were naked?” God is essentially saying, “you’ve always been naked. Why have you just now become ashamed of how I created you? What other voice are you listening to that is telling you this is not good?” See, before the eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God defined what was “good.” He said animals were good, grass was good, people were good, etc. The serpent wanted Eve to determine what was good for herself, knowing that she would never know. The whole Bible is just one long story of humans trying to define what is good for themselves when God says, “I know what is good. You are inherently good. Everything that puts shame, sorrow, hurt, worthlessness, and brokenness onto you is not good. Please, daughter, listen to my voice and no one else's.”
But guess what? Even though we broke the heart of our creator by choosing the knowledge of evil over living in a perfect relationship with Him, He didn’t abandon us to the darkness. He gave us tools to try and make the world the place that He intended it to be while still honoring our choice. I know most of the world thinks Christianity is all about rules, shame, and guilt for sin, but that is not the gospel I know.
The gospel that I know is the one Jesus preached. The gospel Jesus preached while He was alive looked something like this: good news, you have a new king, and in my kingdom, we are doing things differently. In my kingdom, instead of treating the poor like outcasts, we will take care of them. Instead of stoning the adulteresses, we are going to love them. Instead of religion and rules to know our standing with God, we will talk directly to Him and have a relationship with Him. Sorry, but you can’t earn your way to God now. You are in a new, upside-down kingdom.
Jesus loved everyone, especially the outcasts, and He was the harshest on the religious. He came to satisfy religion, not create another one, and He made that pretty clear. Fun fact: there were very few people groups that took care of the poor and sick before Jesus. It technically goes against our evolutionary nature to do so. Jesus took this practice and spread it across the world. Value the outcasts above yourself, self-sacrificially love other people, emanate the love of God to everyone around you, even if they don’t look or sound like you. That was the kingdom of Jesus and the good news to the world.
I believe the “rules” that everyone focuses so heavily on are guidelines so that we can begin to live in Heaven now on Earth. Think about it: a world where there is no lying, murder, crime, idolatry, jealousy, disrespect, etc., and we can rest and love our creator. Sounds like heaven, right? That world that I described is essentially the world governed by the ten commandments, and that is how God intended the Earth to be. You see, as God is love, His commandments are rooted in love for us and to protect us. As great as it would be to live our lives this way, though, it is impossible. Why? Because we are humans, and not only are we humans, but we are humans living in a fallen world with a very powerful enemy. Thank God that Jesus is victorious.
Since we had the ultimate sacrifice paid for our sins (Jesus’ death on the cross), the Old Covenant is dead, and the New Covenant is alive. These rules are not a hammer over our heads for our shortcomings but are fantastic guidelines that reflect how much we need Jesus to guide us towards love. They show us that we need the help of a loving Father when we have come to the end of ourselves. Jesus even said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners (Mark 2:17).” HEAR ME WHEN I SAY THIS: Obeying the laws of God will not get you brownie points with God. You cannot earn your seat inside heaven’s gates. Instead, when we have our lives wrecked by the love of God, we tend to start naturally living our lives this way. It is the fruit of our root in Jesus and an external sign that we are allowing ourselves to be guided by the Spirit of God. It is a sign of true belief. 1 John 4:19 says, “We love because he first loved us.” In order to love the best we can, we first need to be loved by God.

Have you heard the story of the Samaritan woman at the well yet? It’s my favorite. Go ahead and read John 4: 1-26.