Every thing which may be an occasion of grief to the people of God, is not a sufficient ground for questioning the reality of their religion.  Many things may trouble, which ought not to stumble you.  If upon every occasion you should call in question all that had ever been wrought upon you, your life would be made up of doubting and fears, and you could never attain that settled inward peace, and live that life of praise and thankfulness which the Gospel requires. – Keeping the Heart – John Flavel

Romans 2:4. Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

Questioning God’s Goodness

Things trouble us in this life.  We all go through problems every day.  The problem is when we start to question God’s goodness, or reason, for allowing those trials.  If you think too much about every thing bad in your life, you will never be able to praise God and be thankful.  This flesh has a propensity to naturally complain and not trust God.  That is the reason most will not get saved.  They listen to their fallen flesh and doubt the Word of God.  It is humbling to admit you can’t work your way to heaven if that is all you ever did in life.  Trusting God to give you Christ’s righteousness and not depend on your own righteousness takes faith.  We should never question God’s goodness in what he does.  That takes faith.

Failing to Recognize God’s Goodness in Trials

God’s goodness is what leads us to repentance.  When trials come, we fail to recognize this as God’s goodness.  God only chastises his own children.  God will do as much as he can to bring us to repentance and a changed life.  Sometimes blessing us works to make that happen, but often it requires a good old trial.  We need the pressure of troubles to keep us right.  We should not question God’s motive in what he brings into our lives.  He will always do it because he loves us, not because he hates us.  We should never fail to recognize God’s goodness in our trials.  We need to look at the outcome of the trial and what it produces.  If it is producing the works of the Spirit in our life, it is good, and we can praise God in the trial.

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