Is God Really Good?

Would you say that God is good if the following scenario happened to you or a loved one?  Your teenager is struggling with a drug addiction and has been for years, you are diagnosed with a debilitating, potentially crippling disease, your best friend of 25 years is divorcing your brother after 16 years of marriage, your grandbaby dies on Christmas eve, your daughter in law and two grandchildren are in a horrible accident, the children are air lifted to a hospital with life threatening injuries; the accident leaves your four year old grandson paralyzed from the neck down.  How could anyone say that God is good while they are going through such hardships and heartaches? 

The truth is……I didn’t think about it until just recently.  For the past two years I have been studying Gods Word and depending on Him for the strength to get through each day; every hour of each day, but really didn’t think about His goodness until last week.  After listening to the testimony of a man, who had been married for 24 years, had three kids and lost not only his memory but the ability to walk and talk.  He didn’t know what words were or what they meant.  His testimony is “God is so good”.  It was then I realized that I’ve known this all along but just never thought about it…I just knew it…...felt it…..depended on it.

God has brought me through so many heartaches and hardships and as a result it has brought me closer to Him than I ever have been.  We are created for His purpose and His pleasure and I was missing out on that before all of this stuff started happening.  Think about it…….For HIS PLEASURE.  Do I really please God?  Me?  I believe I do when I am thankful for everything; the good and the bad.  God will use my suffering for His purpose and His pleasure and He will be glorified because of it.

We don’t just have good things happening or just bad things happening in our lives.  We have good and bad things happening simultaneously.  We must be thankful in all things and give God the glory.  I just have so many praises for what God has done in my life, especially over the past two years!  It is amazing how much I have grown spiritually.  My relationship with God sustains me because no matter what the circumstance I know that He is essentially, infinitely, perfectly, immutably, and solely good.

Are you thankful for everything?  Do you believe that God is good always…....no matter what your circumstance?????  God loves you, take refuge in Him. 

 

 

Who Do You Trust?

Who do you trust?  Do you trust your spouse?  Do you trust your parents or your best friend?  How much do you trust the people in your life including God and why do you trust them?  You trust them because you know them. 

I was listening to Christian talk radio on various stations while driving to Ft. Worth to visit Jason when a couple of things hit me.   I know it was the Holy Spirit speaking to me because the revelation was crystal clear.   When I got to the jail I said to Jason, “I know you believe in God, right” (he said “yes”).  I said “I know you believe in God but do you know Him”?   Then, I asked him, “How can you trust someone you don’t know”?  I think I saw a light bulb go on inside his head.  It makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?  We don’t trust people we don’t know so how can we trust God if we don’t know Him?

I wonder how many of us have thought about our relationship with God in this manner.  How can we say that we trust God if we don’t really know Him?  Trusting God takes time and effort and over time we trust Him more and more.  Eventually we trust Him completely. 

Over the past couple of years I have gotten to know God in a way that I never knew Him before.  What I said to Jason about not knowing God was true with me as well.  I believed in God but I really didn’t know Him.   I considered myself a Christian.  I went to church, prayed almost daily, tried to be a good person and I believed that when I die I will go to heaven.  I thought this was all I needed to do.  Due to tragedies in my life I began to look to God for help and comfort.  I started to read His Word and pray, not just daily but several times a day.  The more I read His word and the more I prayed the stronger I became. 

My God filled my heart with peace and hope of a brighter day.  That is our hope……..Jesus is coming back!  He is going to take us to His mansion in the sky to live with Him for eternity.  My heart is filled with joy through my sadness because I know God is real and He loves me!  I pray that all of God’s children will take the time to know Him better.  The bible is the greatest love story ever written.  It is our peek into the heart of our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ.  To trust Him you must know Him.  He is Yahweh, The one True God. Do you know Him….really know Him?

 

We Are Never Alone

As I have stated many times before I believe that God is going to heal Jason.  This doesn’t mean that I haven’t had moments of doubt; but I have NEVER stopped believing.  God is interested in what is going on in my heart not what is going through my mind. There is a difference between doubt and unbelief.  Doubt is when we cannot understand what God is doing and why He is doing it. Unbelief is when we don’t believe God’s Word.  We all doubt God's ways in our life at times and we ask “why”.  That is our human response.  The Bible says, "All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me now" (1 Corinthians 13:12b).

It will all be made clear to us when we stand before God. God doesn't ask us to understand everything. He asks us to trust Him and follow Him.  At times as we look at what God is doing and we just can’t see the purpose; especially when we are in so much pain.  It is hard for us to understand why, but the bible says He knows what is best for us and from God's perspective, He is dealing with us in love, and He knows what He is doing. 

We are not alone in our adversity, pain or even in our doubt.  We all face these many times in our life but we can be assured that we are in the midst of God's work.  He sees the big picture and He has our lives in the palm of His hand.  His love is beyond our comprehension.  Imagine the person you love the most in this world……Now imagine loving them more than you already do.  It’s impossible, isn’t it?  God loves us more than our human imagination can fathom.   

God is love and full of mercy, even when we feel like he has left us alone in our pain.  He is there, always there, fulfilling His will in our life.  Do not believe the lies of the Devil; God has not forgotten you!   Trust Him with all you heart and lean not on your own understanding. 

When the season has passed and we look back we will see that God was there the whole time; we were never alone…..Not for one minute.  Read the Word and let God’s love embrace you and allow The Holy Spirit to fill you with peace and comfort in the good times and especially in the bad times.  He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. 

HE LIVED……HE DIED…..HE LIVES…….

 

Contentment In Our Circumstances

Sometimes I wish I could be more like the Apostle Paul in his perseverance of serving the Lord.  He never let anything get in his way of serving His Lord or preaching the Gospel.  His sufferings were unparalleled.  He received forty strips on several occasions, he was beaten with rods three times, he was stoned once and shipwrecked three times.  His appearance was weak and his speech contemptible yet he pressed on preaching the glory of the Messiah. 

What about Job?  He lost all of his children, his wealth and his health all in one day.  He was covered with boils and smelled like rotten flesh yet he never stopped worshiping God and he never blamed him for his suffering.  

Hurt, heartache, disappointment and hardships happen throughout each of our lives.  Some people experience more than their share of these and we wonder why?  Why does God allow so much pain into one family? What is His purpose?  Sometimes it is crystal clear but most times we are uncertain of God’s purpose for our suffering.  We can, however, be certain of one thing – we will know all things when we meet our Savior face to face.  Until that time we must continue to trust in the Lord and have faith that He is in control and that all things will work together for good for those who love Him.  Romans 8:28  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.

We have a purpose in life and that purpose is not about us, our family our job or status in the community; it is about worshiping the Holy God of Heaven and sharing our faith with the lost.  God expects us to be obedient in sharing His Word with the outer most parts of the world.  To you and me the outer most parts of the world could be in our own back yard or even be in our own household. 

We all have suffered in this life and there is no doubt that we will have more sorrow and heartache before our time on earth is through.  As long as we keep our eye on the prize (salvation) we will have peace and joy in our hearts and our lives will be filled with the glory of our Heavenly Father. 

2      Corinthians 1:3-11 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.  For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.  If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.  And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.  We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.  Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.  He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

2 Corinthians 4:15-18   this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.  Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.   So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

 

 

God Is Our Refuge

Is God calling you to come closer to Him?  Does your “relationship” with Him need some quality time?  Are you hurting and just can’t seem to see your way through it?  I know your pain.  I’ve been there, too.  The day I hit my knees and yelled at God is a day that I will remember the rest of my life because it was the day that I realized my total dependence upon Him!  He is in control and I needed to let God be God and allow Him to be my refuge.  The bible says God is our refuge.  This means that He is our shelter and protection from danger.  So when we are going through difficulties in our life we need to remember that He cares and He is there with us protecting us from harm.  He is in control and no matter what; everything is going to be alright.  This is our hope in Him.

This was an amazing realization for me.  That in times of trouble; no matter what I am going through God is my shelter and my strength and He is always present – my refuge.   God is our refuge and strength, a helper who is always found in times of trouble.  Psalm 46:1  I cannot tell you how many times God opened my eyes to His love and mercy through His Word.  It is no wonder that the bible is called the bread of life because without it we would all die from spiritual malnutrition. 

I know I am not the only person on the planet that has pain and suffering in my life.  I also know that every human being that ever lived, will live or is living now is not immune to sorrow, heartache and loss.  The only difference between me and the rest of the world is my relationship with God.  Mine is different from your relationship with God and your relationship is different than everyone else’s relationship with God.  We all serve the same God and He loves all of His children the same but teaches us according to our own understanding.  The more we read His Word the more understanding we have and therefore the more understanding He gives. 

I don’t know about you but I want to know as much about God as I possibly can.  I want Him to fill my heart, mind and spirit with who He is.  The only way He can do this is for me to read His word each day and fill my mind with His goodness, mercy and amazing grace. 

We serve an awesome, powerful Creator who says that He is our refuge and our shelter in times of trouble.  He will never leave us nor forsake us. He is my refuge; my shelter and protector from the storms of life.  My life is in His hands and I trust Him to keep me safe.

The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.  Psalm 9:9

My salvation and glory depend on God; Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before Him.  God is our refuge.  Psalm 62:7-8

I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”  Psalm 91: 2