Rooted Pre Season: Episode 7

Can God be trusted as good, even when life does not make sense?

In this episode, we wrestle with one of the hardest questions of faith: trusting God’s goodness when our lived experience feels confusing or unresolved. Anchored in Psalm 25:8-10, we explore how Scripture defines God’s goodness not by ease or outcomes, but by His character. God is good because He is faithful, upright, and committed to guiding those who seek Him. This episode invites you to shift your focus from circumstances to character, and to consider what it looks like to trust God today, even without clarity.

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to Rooted with Emily Talento, where we explore who Jesus is through context, culture, and covenant. Today is our last day talking about the devo on the character of God, which is sad. I mean, it's over, but also this is just the beginning in so many other ways. So I'm excited for that. God really used writing this Divo in my own life and then getting to further meditate on each and every attribute of God through the podcast, has been amazing for me, and I hope it's been as helpful for you in connecting to God and who he truly is. Day one we talked about his steadfastness. If he's not steadfast, then we can't rely on a single other thing. He says day two. We talked about his nearness. It doesn't matter how we feel. He is present. Day three, we talked about his patience and mercy. God recognizes our limitations. He understands that we are dust and he still loves us anyway. day four, we talked about God's wisdom and how his ways are not Our ways and his thoughts are certainly not our thoughts, but they're so far above and beyond. Day five we talked about God's sovereignty, that he's all power and authority, and he's sustaining all of creation. Day six, we talked about God's faithfulness and how in the middle of the story it might look like he failed, but he's kept every promise he's ever made. And day seven, we are answering the question? Can I trust that God is good even when I don't get it? And the answer is, God is good. This is one of my favorite attributes about God, because we throw the word good around a lot to the point where it kind of doesn't even have a meaning at this point. So What does goodness even mean? Because truthfully, being able to reconcile the fact that God is good with our lived experience can be very challenging. I'm confident that there are seasons in your life, whether previously or even that you're walking through right now, that you're like, I just, I'm sorry. I'm not, I'm not seeing his goodness. It kind of goes back to, what was it, date five. With God's sovereignty, like take a look at the world we're living in right now. This is not a good place to be at all, and you're telling me that God is good in the midst of all this devastation. Again, this goes back to there's just some things that we're not gonna fully understand on this side of heaven, and that's perfectly okay. We are finite beings. It's also that element too, that like if I could understand God fully, then that's a problem. You know? I don't wanna be able to understand my God, that would mean he's not that far above me. Early on, when I was in Bible college and I started studying the character of God as my friend Lindsay suggested, the first attribute that really, I guess shook me was his goodness. And I think on a personal level it was because for most of my life, I was called good. My identity became being good. All that really meant is I made the right choices publicly. but I knew that I wasn't actually good. This created a lot of internal turmoil because there was a discrepancy between what I was perceived as versus what I actually was, what was perceived versus what was real. How can I live up to this standard that was set for me? And so when I learned about God's goodness in this capacity. It really confronted what I knew to be true about what it means to be good. It released me. Yes, my identity had previously been in this thing, but that identity is completely unattainable. God is the only one who is truly good. Psalm 14 says, they have all turned aside together. They have become corrupt. There is none who does good. Not even one. Psalm 53 repeats that, and Romans three 10 says, none is righteous no, not one. So let's dive into our scripture for the day. We are in Psalm 25, verses eight through 10. Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore, he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right and teaches the humble his way. All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies. Okay, so I love this passage. Actually, the whole chapter is so good. Definitely go check it out. But it was super helpful for me in coming out of 2024 and refocusing on God in a way that I hadn't previously before, in this process of him deepening my faith. So definitely check it out. It's so good. Psalm 25 anchors, God's goodness, not in circumstances, but in his character. The circumstances change the day-to-day changes. Think about yesterday when we talked about God's faithfulness. They were literally slaves in Egypt that did not look good. They were literally wandering around the desert for 40 years didn't look good. That doesn't change the fact that God is good. That didn't change the fact that God is faithful. It was, it was just a moment in time in the story. And it's the same thing for all of our lives. If you zoom into a particular moment or season in our lives, yeah, God's goodness might not be the main thing we're seeing, but if we zoom out, we could continue to see the times that he was so good and gracious to us. The reason we are ending with this attribute is because God's goodness is rooted in his other attributes, his faithfulness, his steadfastness, his mercy. His nearness, his wisdom, his sovereignty, i'm gonna tell a quick story. It's not even mine, and I promise you it's not gonna be the last time that I tell it, so I apologize in advance. But it's a Chinese folk tale. It's called The Story of the Farmer or something like that. It all starts out with a farmer whose horse runs away and the people in the town say, oh my gosh, what misfortune, how horrible. And the man says, I don't know what it is, but we'll see. And the next day, the horse comes back with a whole bunch of wild horses with him. Now all the wild horses belong to the farmer and all the people in the town are saying, oh my gosh. Like what? Good luck. That's amazing. Incredible. He's like, I don't know what it is, but I guess we'll see. As the son is training the horses, the son gets kicked and he hits a breaking his leg. And all the people in the town say, oh my gosh, what misfortune, this is horrible. The man again says, I don't know what it is, but we'll see. The next day soldiers came door to door to draft all of the young men to fight in the war. Because They saw his son was injured They left him behind. So all the townspeople said, oh my gosh. What good fortune. You really lucked out here. And again, the farmer replies, maybe we'll see. And that's the end. What I love about this example because it speaks to this element that we are in the middle of a story that's not done. It's unfolding. It's happening in real time as we speak. So in a random given day, you might not see God's goodness in a situation, but it doesn't mean that God isn't good. Those circumstances, those aspects of our lives that we might hate the most, that we struggle with the most might end up being the biggest reflections of God's goodness in our lives. It's just too soon to tell. The sooner that we can get out of our day-to-day mindset, the better because we are limiting God. He's doing so many things. For our good, for his glory. But we forget. We forget so quickly. I can say that I'm saying this to you right now. Everything that he does is for my good and his glory. I'm gonna turn this mic off and I'm gonna go about the rest of my night where I'm gonna be stressing out about some situation, questioning whether God actually has my good in mind. We're so dumb. Maybe you're not dumb. I'm dumb. I, I just, I I don't know where it gets lost in translations. It's really pathetic. But it's not impossible. The more that we're feeding ourselves good, the more that we're reflecting on God's character, the more our brains start to be rewired and changed where we are trusting him more and more and more. So can I trust that God is good even when I don't get it? 1000000%. Our feelings, our thoughts don't really matter. You don't have to understand something to trust him. It's a matter of spending time together and seeing how he responds again and again and again. For our last rooted moment, which I do have a feeling rooted moments will be following us. We are talking about the Hebrew word for good. In Hebrew scriptures, God's goodness was not defined by circumstances or favorable outcomes. The Hebrew word good often translated from tov. Was closely connected to right fitting and trustworthy. He was called good because in all his ways, he was reliable, his character consistent and his actions aligned with truth. Imagine that. I think what this boils down to for me is he's safe. He's predictable. I know what to expect. How many relationships can you actually say that about? I'm gonna guess not many, if any. Like truly safe. I pray that this study has deepened your relationship with God in ways that maybe it hasn't been before. I pray that this doesn't end here, that. Learning more and more about God's character becomes a lifelong endeavor because that's any relationship, any relationship should have an element of discovery. You never know someone fully, and God is no exception to that. I am so appreciative that you stuck around. If you enjoyed this devotional, like, comment, subscribe again, all the things that you would do for any podcast that you like. You could also follow me on Instagram at Emily Talento and at Rooted with Emily Talento. I am just so excited about what is coming next. I'll see you really soon.