What Do You Expect? By Lisa Burkhardt Worley

It took me a long time to understand and expect the goodness of God. For many years, I cowered before my Maker, thinking if I made one wrong move, I’d be zapped by a lightning bolt and that would be the end.

But I realize now that God wants the best for me, as he does for you, because He is good, and He does good.

In Psalm 27:13, King David said, I remain confident of this: “I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” David was convinced that God’s goodness is not just waiting at Heaven’s gate, there is good in this life—something that we need to be convinced of as well.

What about when bad things happen, do you think good will come out of it?

I just heard a powerful story from someone who lives in Israel. His wife had what was supposed to be minor surgery but there was a problem, and she ended up bedridden for ten days. The couple’s daughter decided to postpone a trip to stay in a Kibbutz near where the Nova Music Festival was held. If she had gone, she would have been in the Kibbutz on October 7 when Hamas invaded Israel and she and her friends would most likely have been killed.

This is an example of how God’s ways are not our ways, and no matter what is going on, we must trust Him, and trust that he is either doing something good during bad times or going to work good out of it in the future.

The most tragic of circumstances in our lives can result in something good, and while they are difficult at the time, they generally result in spiritual growth or a beautiful story of God’s hand pulling us through the trial.

Psalm 25:8 says “Good and upright is the Lord.”

Psalm 23:6 says that God’s goodness will follow us all the days of our lives. He leaves a trail of goodness after us. And Romans 8:28 promises that everything in our lives works together for good.

What do you expect? Good or bad? Let’s change our thinking today and always expect good because God is good.