Rahab • God Is Good All the Time

Have you been waiting for God to answer a specific prayer? Most of us do not like to wait for God to work. And we certainly do not like what appears to be a “No” answer to our prayer! We must willing to release our expectations of acceptable outcomes and accept God’s choice of how to be good to us. In the last blog, you learned that God is stronger than your enemies. This is blog #5 in the “Fear to Faith” series. In this post, we will learn from Rahab that we can trust God’s goodness in whatever He chooses to do. Of the four truths essential to walk from fear to faith, this is the hardest truth for us to recognize and accept.

Listen to this blog in a similar podcast from the Everyday Women, Ever-Faithful God Bible Study.

God Is Good in the Waiting

Fear is a normal human emotion designed by God to alert us to danger so that we will take action against it.

Fear is a gift. And sometimes God uses it to get our attention and follow His way of living life rather than our own way. That is what God did for the Israelites.

“Set out now and cross the Arnon Gorge. See, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his country. Begin to take possession of it and engage him in battle. This very day I will begin to put the terror and fear of you on all the nations under heaven. They will hear reports of you and will tremble and be in anguish because of you.” (Deuteronomy 2:24-25)

The state of morale in Jericho was going according to God’s plan. Their hearts “melted in fear.” That does not sound like fun. But Rahab did not melt in fear. She put her faith in the God of the Israelites instead of her own gods or her own people.

When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. “Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them—and that you will save us from death.” (Joshua 2:11-13)

By faith, Rahab made a conscious choice for God based upon the few facts she knew about Him.

Rahab had to wait

Then, Rahab had to wait for her new God to rescue her. She was waiting during each one of those seven marching days plus about two weeks before that. She did not know God’s plan. And she had a houseful of people with her. So, she was feeding them and keeping them focused on possible rescue rather than destruction.

That reminds me of the time hurricanes hit south Louisiana where I grew up. My grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins would come to stay at our house for safety. The high winds would knock out the electricity. We never knew how long it would be out. We had to wait. Yet, while waiting, my mom had to somehow fix meals to feed all those people until they could return home. That was not easy.

By faith, Rahab made a conscious choice to wait and depend on her new God to rescue her. To act on her behalf. To be good to her.

Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.” So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother, her brothers and sisters and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel. … But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day. (Joshua 6:22-25)

Rahab trusted in the goodness of her new God and the people who served Him. God was faithful to rescue and provide for her.

Having to wait

Most of us do not like to wait for God to work. And we certainly do not like what appears to be a “No” answer to our prayer!

A while ago, I was leading a group of women through our Bible Study of Mark, “Heartbreak to Hope.” Our discussion centered on how pain affects our lives and our perspective of God’s goodness to us. We were studying the Mark 5:21-43 account of the woman who had been hemorrhaging for 12 years and the father who needed Jesus to heal his 12-year-old daughter.

Our discussion question was this, “Describe any of your own painful circumstances that have driven you to Christ. What did you learn about His faithfulness through that experience?”

As each woman shared her own story, it was obvious that some could recognize God’s goodness to her in the time. But others were still struggling with God’s goodness because the pain had not gone away or been resolved to their satisfaction.

Times like that tempt us to question God’s goodness. As I mentioned in the “4 Truths to Walk from Fear to Faith” blog, we have an idea of what His goodness to us should look like. When what happens does not meet our expectations, we can easily get discouraged. We may say to each other, “God is good all the time.” But, do we really believe He is good when we get that “No” answer to our prayer? Or, when we get that “Not yet” answer? Are we willing to release those expectations of acceptable outcomes and accept God’s choice of how to be good to us?

The fact that God is good all the time is a key truth and something we can trust on our walk from fear to faith.

The Bible Declares: God Is Good All the Time

You [God] are good, and what you do is good. (Psalm 119:68 NIRV)

Everything about God is good. He is good in Himself, and what He does is good. That means God allows nothing to happen to His children—to you and me—that is not for our good. God is good all the time, and He is at work in our lives for good.

We even quote a Bible verse about God working all things in our lives for our good.

And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

But, you might ask, what about the tough things that happen to us? Someone gets very sick, loses a job, or has to move far away to another town. Is God being good then? What must be the answer to that question? YES! Why? It is because God is good all the time.

Over the years, I have learned through personal Bible study and my faith walk that God’s goodness has three aspects that apply to our times of fear and pain. These are taught in all of our Joyful Walk Bible Studies.

The three aspects of God’s goodness are these: 1) He is good even in the tough times; 2) He is good in different ways to each of us, and 3) He is good in what He allows or does not allow into our lives. Let us look at each of those.

1) God Is Good Even in The Tough Times

God is the perfect parent and knows what it will help His children grow into maturity. That sometimes includes pain. Isn’t that true regarding human children? Growing up can be trying just in the facing of new things while getting used to the old. Teething hurts, but babies must go through teething to get some teeth to chew real food. Same thing is true of learning to walk or ride a bike, getting dirty – by the way, their learning it is okay to get dirty as kids comes in handy on mission trips later in life. What about adolescence? A long…painful…but necessary time of gaining independence. Coddling prevents growing up.

God teaches His children through tough things He allows in our lives that help us grow up. Those tough times build bones and teeth in our faith. They help us learn to trust God. They help us learn to give up trying to do things our own way—which may not be the best way—and start doing things God’s way—which is always the best way.

God is good in the tough times.

2) God Is Good in Different Ways to Each of Us

Through reading the Bible, I have seen that God’s goodness looks different in each person’s life. For example, in the book of Ruth, Naomi and her family were starving so they moved to Moab to get bread. There, they met Ruth. Ruth did not need bread; she needed God. Naomi shared God with Ruth. Different needs were met by God’s goodness.

God’s goodness will definitely look different in your life than it does in my life.

3) God Is Good in What He Allows or Does Not Allow into Our Lives

Not everyone gets cancer, has a serious injury, endures long-term unemployment, loses a child, or experiences the desertion of a spouse. Throughout the Bible are many verses stating how God healed someone or protected someone in a dangerous situation. We do not even know all the dangers God is protecting us from daily! We should thank Him all the time for doing that. God is good in what He allows or does not allow into our lives.

Trust His Choosing

Since God is good all the time, you can trust His goodness in whatever He chooses to do in your life. This is the sticky part, isn’t it? Why is that? I think it is because you and I already have an idea of what we think His goodness to us should look like!

We are all good at praying solutions to whatever is challenging us. “Here’s the need, God. Here is how you can fix it. Wouldn’t that be a good idea, God?”

Do you believe that God has the right to choose what He brings into your life? Do I? I know God is good. I must choose to trust His choice of how to be good to me.

Remember this verse you probably memorized at some point in your life?

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5)

The day before my dearest friend died of breast cancer, she softly spoke to me these words, “God is good.” I finished her sentence with “all the time” because I had heard her say that repeatedly. She replied, “I don’t understand all of this.” Most of the time, we just don’t understand. But we have to rely on God’s goodness and trust His choosing. That is the call to dependent living.

The Call to Dependent Living

What is dependent living? Human parents raise their children to be less dependent and more independent as they grow up. God raises His children to be less independent of Him and more dependent on Him as they grow up to maturity.

ANYTHING that draws us closer to God and makes us depend upon Him is good for us.

We cannot move from fear to faith on our own. We must trust God and depend on His power in us.

• Fear says, “I can’t.” Faith says, “God can through me.”
• Fear says, “I won’t.” Faith says, “God will in me.”
• Fear says, “I don’t.” Faith says, “God does for me and through me.”

We can say about anything, “Lord Jesus, I can’t do this on my own. But, you can do this in and through me. I will trust you.” And it is okay to be a little scared because we will rely upon Him more.

Dear believer, we have a big God. Yet, God may not choose to rescue you from everything that is threatening you. Or, He may not choose to rescue you from poor decisions made by you or someone close to you. You may face what seem like insurmountable circumstances in your life. You may have to give up something that gives you security. You may be waiting for God to answer a desperate prayer. But, in any and all situations, even in the waiting, you can count on the fact that God is good all the time as you believe and act on our 4 truths:

1. God loves you.
2. He knows what is going on in your life.
3. He can do something about it.
4. You can trust His goodness in whatever He chooses to do!

That is how we move from fear to faith with our good God.

In the next post, we will see from the life of Deborah how to face trouble with courage and peace.

Let Jesus satisfy your heart with His faithfulness, so you will choose to trust Him with every fear.

All of the above information is covered in the Everyday Women, Ever-Faithful God Bible Study or the shorterThe Walk from Fear to Faith Bible Study.

Related Resources

The following Bible Studies and podcasts will give you more biblical insight into how to walk from fear to faith in your life.

• Everyday Women, Ever-Faithful God Bible Study on Amazon
• The Walk from Fear to Faith Bible Study on Amazon
• Satisfied Series 1 Podcasts (Old Testament women series)
• Profiles of Perseverance Bible Study (Joseph, David, Elijah, and Nehemiah)
• “Applying Faith to Fear” bookmark

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