There's never a moment in all our lives, from the day we trusted Christ till the day we see Him, when God is not longing to bless us. At every moment, in every circumstance, God is doing us good. He never stops. It gives Him too much pleasure. God is not waiting to bless us after our troubles end. He is blessing us right now, in and thorough those troubles. At this exact moment, He is giving us what He thinks is good.

There, of course is the rub. He gives us what He thinks is good, what He knows is good. We don't always agree.

We have our own ideas about what a good God should do in the middle of our circumstances, ideas that stretch all the way from opening a space in a crowded parking lot near the mall's entrance to funding our ministry dreams to straightening out our kids to giving us a negative biopsy report.

It's those ideas that get in the way of our realizing what goodness really is. Like children, we believe a loving parent would give us ice  cream without first making us eat spinach. Goodness is ice cream. It certainly isn't spinach.

But our problem is worse than that. Not only do we want what immediately feels good and often dislike what in fact is good for us, but we're also out of touch with what would bring us the most pleasure if it were given to us. There as a heavenly ice cream with the nutritional value of spinach. And it's available now, in this life.

...The highest dream we could ever dream, the wish that if granted would make us happier than any other blessing, is to know God, to actually experience Him. The problem is that we don't believe this idea is true. We assent to it in our heads. But we don't feel it in our hearts.

We can't stop wanting to be happy. And that urge should prompt no apology. We were created for happiness. Our souls therefore long for whatever we think will provide the greatest possible pleasure. We just aren't yet aware that an intimate relationship with God is that greatest pleasure.

from Shattered Dreams: God's Unexpected Pathway to Joy  pages 1-2
by Larry Crabb