{"id":2898,"date":"2019-11-18T08:30:55","date_gmt":"2019-11-18T16:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/?p=2898"},"modified":"2019-11-18T06:17:38","modified_gmt":"2019-11-18T14:17:38","slug":"always-good-circumstances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/randyalcorn\/2019\/11\/always-good-circumstances\/","title":{"rendered":"God\u2019s Unchanging Character Means He Is Always Good, No Matter Our Circumstances"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me! O Lord, be my helper!\u2019 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!\u201d (Psalms 30:10-12).<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s my\u00a090-second response<\/a>\u00a0to a question from Greg Laurie about whether we can be happy when going through suffering and hard times:<\/p>\n

<\/iframe><\/p>\nIn my understanding of Scripture and my experience, daily happiness in Christ isn\u2019t wishful thinking. It\u2019s based on solid facts: God secured our eternal happiness through the cross and resurrection. He dwells within us, and He intercedes for us. Nothing separates us from His love. And He tells us \u201cBe happy and full of joy, because the Lord has done a wonderful thing\u201d (Joel 2:21, NCV).<\/p>\nLife brings no end of ups and downs. One week or month or year seems great, another is discouraging. Wishful thinking and denial won\u2019t make things like health issues, financial struggles, or relational difficulties go away, and while discouragement is natural, reminding yourself of God\u2019s unchanging character and love and faithfulness is critical to being able to rise above the adversity of circumstances that seem to change like the weather.<\/p>\nI\u2019m not talking about looking in a mirror and trying to make yourself a positive thinker. So-called \u201cpositive thinking,\u201d the sort that\u2019s involved in prosperity theology, tries to make us happy by ignoring the negative (such as sin, suffering, and hell).<\/p>\nFor two years some people have been telling us that if we just trust God enough Nanci\u2019s cancer will go away. Well, we do trust Him and we pray daily for her healing as we have all along. But we also recognize that He is God, and His Word does not always promise ease and healing. In fact, it is full of His followers who suffer, die, and must grieve over the loss of loved ones. I believe in a fact-based happiness centered in Christ and His love, wisdom, and sovereign plan.<\/p>\nNanci goes in for two big tests, an MRI and a CT scan, this Wednesday, November 20. If God answers our prayers that the cancer is gone, we will say \u201cGod is good.\u201d If we find that the cancer is still there, we will go forward with the scheduled lung surgery the following week, two days before Thanksgiving, and we will say \u201cGod is good.\u201d If the cancer has grown, we will say \u201cGod is good.\u201d And we will have a different but good Thanksgiving if she\u2019s in the hospital five days after surgery as the doctors believe. (We\u2019ll share updates after the tests on her\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.caringbridge.org\/visit\/nancialcorn\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">CaringBridge page<\/a>.)<\/p>\nWe will be right to say \u201cGod is good\u201d in any of those cases because God is who He is, unchanging, always good and faithful and loving to His people even when He chooses not to answer our prayers the way we would have liked. God is just as good when you lose as when you win, and just as good when life goes your way and when it doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\nHe is trustworthy, and always knows better than we do, even though He kindly invites us to pray for the desires of our hearts, which is why we\u2019ve prayed for Nanci\u2019s healing ever since she got the cancer, and for successful treatments too.<\/p>\nScripture does not teach the God-as-genie, name-it-and-claim-it prosperity gospel, which promises happiness through health, wealth, and success. We should be grateful when God grants us health, provisions, and delightful surprises. But it\u2019s one thing to be happy when such things occur, and another to believe God has failed us when they don\u2019t.<\/p>\nOur models shouldn\u2019t be jewelry-laden prosperity preachers, but Jesus-centered servants, such as missionary Amy Carmichael (1867\u20131951), who brought the gospel to countless children she rescued from temple prostitution in India. She experienced much physical suffering and didn\u2019t have a furlough in fifty-five years. Yet she wrote, \u201cThere is nothing dreary and doubtful about this life. It is meant to be continually joyful. . . . We are called to a settled happiness in the Lord whose joy is our strength.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cOur soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you\u201d (Psalm 33:20-22).<\/p>\n<blockquote><\/p><center>For more on happiness, see Randy\u2019s book\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/store.epm.org\/god-want-us-happy\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Does God Want Us to Be Happy?<\/em><\/a>\u00a0For more on suffering, see his book\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/store.epm.org\/the-goodness-of-god\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Goodness of God<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0<\/center><\/blockquote>\nPhoto by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@johngibbons?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">John Gibbons<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/s\/photos\/rock?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Unsplash<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201c\u2018Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me! O Lord, be my helper!\u2019 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!\u201d (Psalms […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[78,45,1800,742,44,673,3,115,61,224,2106,344,1347,71,2103],"class_list":["post-2898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-happiness","tag-cancer","tag-character","tag-circumstances","tag-faithful","tag-god","tag-good","tag-happiness","tag-healing","tag-hope","tag-life","tag-loving","tag-pain","tag-pray","tag-suffering","tag-unchanging"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>God\u2019s Unchanging Character Means He Is Always Good, No Matter Our Circumstances, by Randy Alcorn<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Reminding yourself of God\u2019s unchanging character and love and faithfulness is critical to being able to rise above the adversity of circumstances... 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