. . . All the Time!

 Looking through my Bible study notebook recently, I came across a passage dated March 2011: I want to remember that God is good, and his love is true even when I face unhappiness. God is good not only when everything is lovely and warm but also when the situation is ugly and cold.

When I am sitting warm and cozy in my clean white bed, plenty of food in my stomach and surrounded by loving family, it’s easy to sense God’s care. I think of Carol Pappas, battling cancer, and of people I don’t know dealing with the aftermath of an airport bomb. God is no less good to them. Can they see it? Can I?

It’s been more than fourteen years since I wrote those words. I can’t recall the airport bombing incident, but I sure do remember Carol Pappas. I know many of you do, too. For new members to Grace, Carol was Andy’s precious, charming British wife. She had such a sweet spirit, and everyone loved her. She left us later that year, but I feel sure she is somewhere praising God today. Now we know other dear people who are facing illness. That fact of life does not go away. And there are other tragedies of life—shootings, floods, wars. So many things to cause fear and doubt. Is it still true that God is good? Does he still love us now, in 2025, with the current troubles? Of course he is. Yes, he does.

I still have Sunday morning’s song running through my head: “Great is our God; Sing with me, how great is our God!” We looked together at Psalm 96:4—“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised.” A few days ago, I read in a devotional book the wonderful promise that we are “protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this [we] greatly rejoice even though now for a little while [we] have been distressed through various trials” (I Peter 1:5-6).

Indeed, God is good and trustworthy. My notebook passage from fourteen years ago ends with the following:

I’m not asking for trouble or looking for grief, but when it comes—as it surely will—I pray I will remember God’s love and mercy and keep trusting him.

This is my prayer for all of us. Let us rejoice in the good times, and also rejoice in the difficult times, for God is still good.

--Sherry Poff