For You, O Lord, are good

Over the past year and half our family has walked through some tough things. We have also walked with close friends through hard situations. Walking through these things has brought me to a place of needing to remember the character of God. You can't even begin to process the hard questions about life in a healthy way without starting with WHO God is. I have failed miserably with clinging to and proclaiming WHO God is during grief, struggle, and pain. I'm so thankful for God's grace and that he is opening my eyes to my need to remember that he is who he says he is. Now many of you are probably saying well that's great, but who does he say that he is. For the good of my own soul I'd love to proclaim on this blog the character of God according to his word.
 I think we have to start at what Jesus did for us on the cross. We call this the gospel. It the good news that Jesus lived the life we should of lived and died the death we should of died so that we can have hope. We have hope in the fact that our sins our forgiven and we can cling to Jesus to be enough for us in this life and in the life to come. The gospel tell us SOOOO much about God's character. Read this passage below from Isaiah that is prophesying to what Christ will do for us, and then we can wrestle through how this passage and the gospel is great starting point for understanding of who God is.
"Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone, his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53: 4-6

So, from this passage we can obviously tell that we suck! We denied, rejected, and turned away from our God. Whether that's in our actions, thoughts, words, or beliefs EVERYONE has turned away from God. God showed great mercy on us and poured his wrath on HIS own son so that we could be made right! So that we can know him and be in relationship with him! From that alone, we can see that God is merciful, gracious, loving, forgiving, and just. God is good. It might sound cheesy to some of you, but it's true. The definition of good according to dictionary.com is morally excellent; virtuous; righteous; pious: a good man. I'd say that defines the God that we see in the gospel. 
So why is this important when life gets hard...because if we don't cling to the character of God and promises of God when life sucks we can turn now dangerous path. For example, My husband lost his mom tragically about a year and half ago. It was and still is heartbreaking to walk through life without her here. It's hard not to question God and to wonder why he took her so early. It's hard to feel like it was a mistake and something slipped through God's hands. But over this past year and half Matt and I have had to cling to the fact that we live in a fallen world and living on this earth is hard. But we know that God is good and wants good for us. And that we will receive our ultimate good in heaven when we are with our savior. Remembering this hope doesn't take away the pain of losing someone you love or whatever your going through, but it allows you to turn your grief to a loving, kind, and gracious God. It gives you hope. Your hope isn't in having the perfect life on earth, it's in Christ. When your fighting and trying to put your hope in Christ it frees you to wrestle through the hard questions of life without forgetting that you have a Good God who loved you enough to die for you. When you lose someone you love, when you are fighting sin that seems to engulf you, when you have a miscarriage, when you feel overwhelmed, when work is hard, when you lose your job, when you are fighting depression, when you feel betrayed by friends, whatever life brings...you can remember that your foundation is Christ. And Christ is Good.