We serve a God that cares for us and understands us. Today’s sermon is about the nature, character and being of who God is.

The nature of God is that He is a good God. It is common phrase among believers that God is good.

But most of us do not understand the power of God’s goodness. We struggle with suffering being in the world. So what does it actually mean that God is good?

“The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those who trust in Him.”
‭‭Nahum‬ ‭1:7‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

There are three aspects of the nature of God to be found in this passage.

1. The Lord is good
2. He is a stronghold in time of trouble
3. He knows those who trust in Him

We will be focusing on just the first point. The Lord is still good in spite of difficult circumstances. We can still declare, “The Lord is good.”

Our circumstance may not change but an internal confidence can rise up in Him. Life is hard. This is reality and we face difficulties…but God is still good.

The degree of challenges divers from person to person. This pandemic has caused great hardships and difficulties. It is OK to go through hardships but it doesn’t mean God has forgotten us.

Why does a good God allow suffering? How can we still know that the Lord is good? If you look at several Scriptures, it all speaks about stories of enduring hardships. Even Jesus’ story was a story of enduring.

The Lord is close to the broken hearted (Ps 34:18).

We sometimes question God when we go through difficult times.

So what is good then?

Good is what God approves. Whatever God thinks of, desires, approves of, plans etc is always good. God’s goodness is not necessarily what we think it means. God’s goodness starts with Him. (Isaiah 55: 8-9)

We have to learn to trust Him when we experience painful losses and circumstances (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Yet we can fail to trust God because:
1. we fail to recognize the voice of the Father (John 10:27). When we recognize His voice, it comforts and strengthens us. It leads us to His goodness.

2. We feel distant from God. It’s natural to feel this, just like Job did in His suffering. Yet Job had an unwavering, great trust in God (Job 13:15). God is good not because of the things that He does. God is good because He is God, full stop.

3. We have cultivated the bad habit of worry. We are better at worrying than trusting God. It can be difficult to conquer our worries but we can get through it by trusting God.

4. We see God as a vending machine. We treat God like that sometimes, when we don’t see the outcome we wanted for after praying/ giving tithes etc; a genie in the bottle or magician. Treat God like a Father. The Lord loves you and is good all the time.