Scripture Reflections

When the serpent tempted Eve, he did so by casting doubt on the character of God. Once Adam and Eve doubted whether God was trustworthy and good, they would be willing to do anything. The rest of mankind has followed Adam and Eve into this mistrust, assuming that God does not have our best interests at heart, assuming that we can discover goodness for ourselves in some other way than the one set by God.

God kept communicating his goodness and trustworthiness to mankind, though! He sent rain and fruitfulness to the earth as a testimony of his kindness (Acts. 14:17). Creation itself is enough to prove that God is good, yet the history of humanity shows our refusal to honor him or thank him for his kindness (Rom. 1:19-21).

Even those of us who believe in our minds that he is good struggle at times to trust in our hearts his goodness. There are so many times where we try to chart our own course, rather than follow him, because we trust our own instincts for what makes life good more than we trust his word. Much of our sin springs simply from lack of faith that God will be good to us. But to people like us, people who struggled to trust the goodness of God, Jesus spoke clearly:

“And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:9-13)

The word of Jesus concerning the Father is clear. His character is better than the best of human fathers. He will be kind to his children. And Jesus’ word can be trusted, because he guaranteed it with his life itself.

So the question for us is simple—will we trust that God is good to his children? Will we lay down our own agenda and simply follow him, trusting that he will be better to us than we could ever be to ourselves?

Steven+