In-spite of xyz...
I’d be lying if I said this year has started off amazing. It’s been quite the contrary; but we’ll talk about that in a future blog. These past few days has been about making a conscious decision to believe in God’s goodness in-spite of xzy. If this is you, if your year has not started off “according to plan” please keep reading because there is hope. Not all is lost and whatever has been lost, God is able to redeem it but there is a decision to be made and only you can make it. Get yourself back up and make the choice to believe in the goodness of God.
Every
where you look
it may seem as though hope is lost
We all know God is good, right? How about the popular chant, “God is good, all the time and all the time, God is good!” This definitely took me back to my days at youth camp. In any case, let’s be honest, can we get real for a second? The reality is sometimes it just doesn’t feel like God is good. 1 Peter 5:7 says to cast all of our anxiety on Him because He cares. But what happens when it feels like He doesn’t care, what then? Everywhere you look, it may seem as though hope is lost.
In Psalm 46, the psalmist says, “God is our refuge and strength, a present help in times of trouble. Therefore, we will not fear…”
In his commentary on Psalm 46, Charles Spurgeon wrote that God is good — not because he causes things that seem or feel “good” to happen in our lives, but because in the midst of the storm, God comes closer to us than the storm could ever be.
The bible says that God IS good, not that He does good. He Is good! It’s who He is, it’s His character. Therefore, we should not only say that God is good when good things happen because He remains good when bad things happen too. When the storms of life hit us and appear to knock us down, He remains good because He is our refuge and our strength. In our darkest and loneliest moments, He is there, closer than ever. But Landy, I don’t feel God, want to know something? At times, I don’t either but we cannot be led by our feelings and emotions but by our faith and by the word of God.
JD Greer says “Our emotions don’t have brains. They can’t think. They can’t show faith. We have to think for them. We have to show faith, and then we tell them how to feel. We must never feel our way into our beliefs; we have to believe our way into our feelings.” A lot of Christians understand that we walk by faith, not by sight, but they don’t understand that we walk by faith and not by feeling. At any one moment, they trust their heart to let them know what is true. Sometimes this is nice, because you feel like God is pleased with you. But spiritual highs can’t last forever. Eventually, you may feel like God has forgotten you. You may feel distant from him. What then? Jeremiah says, “I may feel utterly forsaken, alone, and crushed, but God’s Word tells me my feelings are not true. So I choose to believe him, even though I can’t feel it.”
It’s a choice, friend. And sometimes making the right choice is difficult because it goes against what we feel. Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Other translations say it is desperately wicked, desperately sick, incurable. The word deceitful means “crooked, polluted or slippery; it’s to not be trusted because our hearts are lead by our emotions and our emotions are lead by our feelings and our feelings change ALL the time, especially us women. Ha! In all seriousness, the Word of God is constant and our feelings are not.
Be encouraged with this word found in Matthew 24:35 that says “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” Hebrews 13:8 says “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever”. Malachi 3:6 says “For I, the Lord, do not change”. Psalm 102:27 says “But You are the same, And Your years will not come to an end.” James 1:17 says “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” I’m encouraged by those sweet reminders that are treasured in the Word of God and I want to remind you that we serve a an unchanging God, a good God who gives us good gifts from above-even if we don’t feel it at the moment. He really does care about every single detail of our lives.
Proverbs 3:5 says “Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Trust in the Lord, not in yourself. Trust in Him wholeheartedly and rely confidently in Him alone. When you’re confident, there is no room for fear or doubts. You can hold your head up high and walk boldly even if you don’t know where the path is leading you. Don’t trust your heart, don’t trust your feelings, don’t trust your emotions. Trust in the only One who is unchanging-God. And when you do so, don’t rely on your insight or your thoughts or your plans, rely on His because they will always far exceed yours.
Now don’t judge me, but this kind of reminds me of the movie Bird Box, which I’m sure you’ve all watched. Just as boy and girl had to trust and rely on their mom as they were blindfolded to get to safety; as children of God, we are to rely on our heavenly Father to help us arrive to the place where He is leading us. We walk by faith and not by sight. The path may not be easy, the journey may not make sense, but if we trust in His goodness and in the plan He has for each of us, we can confidently walk through wherever He takes us.
So, today I choose to continue to believe in God’s goodness in-spite of xzy…how about you? The bible says in Romans 10:17 that faith comes from hearing and hearing the word of God, in this case (reading the Word of God). And I want to leave you some scriptures that speak on God’s goodness so that you may cling to His Word, His promises.
All that God is and does is good.
"You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees" (Psalm 119:68).
God’s goodness and love last forever.
"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever" (Psalm 107:1).
God is good to everyone.
"The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made" (Psalm 145:9).
Everything God made was good.
"God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day" (Genesis 1:31).
God has goodness stored up for us.
"How abundant are the good things that you have stored up for those who fear you, that you bestow in the sight of all, on those who take refuge in you" (Psalm 31:19).
Everything from God is good.
"For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving" (1 Timothy 4:4).
All things that are good are from God.
"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17).
God alone is Good
"Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, 'Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?' 'Why do you ask me about what is good?' Jesus replied. 'There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments'" (Matthew 19:16-17).
"For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless" (Psalm 84:11).
God's Goodness Impacts Us.
We are blessed through God’s goodness
Goodness can come from all circumstances.
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).
His goodness leads to repentance.
"His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness" (2 Peter 1:3).
"Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?" (Romans 2:4)
God's goodness is our shelter
"Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him" (Psalm 34:8).
Take hold of each Word and of each promise and tell yourself, repeat if necesarry that God is good in-spite of xyz. You’re allowed to vent and feel the way you do but you’re not allowed to stay there and make it a permanent residency. Your feelings cannot dominate you, your thoughts are not suppose to consume you, especially if there not good ones. They must be aligned to the Word of God. 2 Corinthians 10:5 says that we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. Let’s measure up our thoughts and our feelings to the Word of God not according to our circumstances.
And be encouraged today that your Heavenly Father takes care of you when you cast all of your worries and anxiety onto Him. My friend, at the end of the day you have a choice, it’s not the easiest but in the long run, its the best, you and I have a daily decision to believe even when we don’t see, to trust when we’re troubled and to walk by faith, not be feelings (or sight).
Today, I challenge you to accept God’s goodness and believe that He is a Good Good Father in-spite of xyz. He has a strong grip on you and He will not let you go!
Be Encouraged, Be Blessed!
~landypf