But God’s Goodness Doesn’t Feel Good - Encouragement for Today - August 4, 2026

Encouragement for Today

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Lysa TerKeurst August 4, 2026

But God’s Goodness Doesn’t Feel Good
Lysa TerKeurst

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39, NIV).

Can I be honest with you? I don’t always know how to make peace with the uncertainty of what God allows.

And it’s not just what He allows; it’s also how much He allows. His timing. His ways. His long patience for something I feel requires swift action. He seems to have great endurance for listening to me cry over what He surely could stop, change, rethink, redo, erase, or undo. I don’t get it.

When God's goodness doesn't feel good, seem good, or look good, it confuses me and sends me into this weird place of feeling betrayed by Him. Can you relate?

If I had the chance to talk to God face-to-face today, this is what I would want to process with Him: how I feel in the face of His seeming silence, how confusing it is when He doesn’t fix things, and how hard it can be to constantly try to accept His “mysterious ways” when nothing makes sense and I’m dealing with one hard thing on top of another with no end in sight.

It’s a very presumptive thought but a completely transparent one: Sometimes I don’t want God’s mystery. I want His love, His power, and His assurance that it’s all going to go like I’ve prayed. Too often, His mystery bumps into my need for reassurance, and my faith feels shockingly fragile in the midst of all that feels relentless about life.

But recently God has been challenging me to look at the word “relentless” in a different way. What might happen if I began to see every hard thing I face as a constant reminder of Jesus’ relentless love declared over me (John 3:16)?

His love over every bit of my stress, anxiety, fear, and all the questions that keep me up at night. Over every bit of chaos and every thread of heartbreak. Every impulse to take back control, every instinct to manage what’s not mine to manage. Every detail. Every facet. Every confusion. Every misunderstanding. Every thought of mine that’s true and every lie I’ve bought into.

Jesus is relentless — never letting go, never giving up, never letting a ball drop, never missing a tear that falls. Jesus is relentless in how He goes after peace and restitution and mercy and justice and grace and hope, all with us in mind. Jesus is relentless in guiding us, guarding us, loving us through our doubts, and shaping our internal world to be more and more in line with His best.

We can hold fast to what Romans 8:38-39 says: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

He is relentless in His love for us.

And part of that is His desire for us to position ourselves intentionally to recognize and receive that relentless love. But the enemy wants us to stay broken, bitter, busy, frustrated, fragmented, and consumed with trying to figure out and fix the tensions around us. The enemy wants us to miss what is going right and fixate on what is wrong (2 Corinthians 11:14-15; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 2 Corinthians 2:11).

The enemy wants us to magnify our problems while minimizing the presence of Jesus in our midst. But where Jesus is, there is always hope and help, and nothing hinders His good plans.

The enemy wants us to believe that when things don’t feel good, the Lord isn’t being good. Jesus wants us to operate in the assurance that He is with us and will never leave us. Through it all, He is working out something good. And even though we may not see the big picture, we can still catch glimpses of His goodness today.

Jesus, I confess how quickly I question Your goodness when life seems relentless and I feel afraid of what You’re allowing. When Your ways and Your timing confuse me, help me remember that Your love has never loosened its grip on me. Quiet the lies of the enemy, open my eyes to glimpses of Your goodness, and teach my heart to trust You — even when I don’t understand You. Thank You for being relentless in love, relentless in grace, and relentless in holding me close. In Jesus' name, amen.

OUR FAVORITE THINGS
If you need a safe place to wrestle honestly with the Lord through the hard questions and doubts you have about what He allows, Lysa TerKeurst’s new book, Making Peace with What I Can’t Control, is the resource for you. In the pages of this book, Lysa will help you recognize specific tactics of the enemy that keep you in spiritual confusion about God, fueled by emotional exhaustion from the relentlessness of life and so much more. Preorder your copy today, and you can start reading the first three chapters immediately!

ENGAGE
Find everyday encouragement when you connect with Lysa TerKeurst here on Instagram.

FOR DEEPER STUDY
Lamentations 3:22, “The faithful love of the Lord never ends!His mercies never cease” (NLT).

How does it comfort you to know that Jesus is relentless in His love for you? In what ways could this help shift your perspective in a hard season? We’d love to hear from you today in the comments.

Proverbs 31 Ministries
P.O. Box 3189
Matthews, NC 28106
www.Proverbs31.org