God is good--Learning a heart of thankfulness

“God gives God. He withholds no good thing from you. And the good things in life are not so much health, but holiness; not so much riches in this world, but relationship with God; not so much our plans, but His presence—and He withholds no good thing from us because the greatest things aren’t ever things. He doesn’t withhold Jesus from you. Christ is your good, and He is ALL yours, and this always your miracle. No matter the bareness you feel, you can always have as much Jesus as you want.” –Ann Voskamp

This quote hit home so hard for me today, so that I find myself questioning my heart, “Do I amidst my current circumstances, believe God to be good?” I think this is a question we all need to stop every so often to ask ourselves. A false foundation can be laid in believing that we must have an experiential feeling, where everything in our life is lining up for our benefit, to know that God is good. This could only lead us to be people who are experiential adventure seekers, instead of people seeking after the face of God. Oswald Chambers writes a warning of this in his book “My Utmost for His Highest”, “My experience is not what makes redemption real—redemption is reality. The Spirit of God takes me beyond myself and my experiences, and identifies me with Jesus Christ. If I am left only with my personal experiences I am left with something not produced by redemption. Is any experience dearer to you than your Lord? You must allow Him to be Lord over you, and pay no attention to any other experience over which He is not Lord. Be relentlessly hard on yourself if you are in the habit of talking about experiences you have had. Faith based on experiences is not faith; faith based on God’s revealed truth is the only faith there is.”

The reality is that God is good. And He is all I need! When my view of Him becomes skewed I need to come back to the truth of who He is. His goodness is not based off of how He blesses me. God is not good because of the situations He places me in; God is not good because of the people He brings into my life; God is not good because of how I feel; God is not good because of how I look; God is not good when I have money; God is not good when I have a husband; God is not good when my family is settled and taken care of; God is not good because of my excellence; GOD IS GOOD BECAUSE GOD IS GOD! “I will give thanks to your name, O LORD, for it is good.” Psalm 54:6

When I am lacking what I think will make my life better or more fulfilled that does not mean that God is not good. He is my heavenly Father who loves to give good gifts to His beloved children! Matthew 7:9-11 says, “Which of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”

And Psalm 84:11-12 says, “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor [grace] and honor. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O LORD of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!”

Knowing this is who God is when things seem especially hard and it feels like I am facing a season of life like Job--who had everything taken away from him, I need to step back and recall the faithfulness of God in my every moment, because again, His goodness towards me is not based off of my circumstances. It’s time to consider, in the doubts and storms, that “YES, the LORD will give what is good!” (Psalm 85:12) and “Those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.” (Psalm 34:10) Time to get my eyes off of my circumstances and back to Jesus Christ and His righteousness. Can I say like Job, “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21)?  And like Job can it be said of me, “In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong” (Job 1:22)? What if when trials and tribulations come my way can I declare like Habakkuk, “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Jehovah; I will take joy in Elohim of my salvation. Elohim, Adonai, is my strength; He makes my feet like the deer’s; He makes me tread the high places.” (Habakkuk 3:17-19) Habakkuk just declared how terrible is life prospects were looking, and yet he could finish by saying he would take joy in God?! What are we missing today that keeps us from declaring such things as Habakkuk? I’ve been challenged to consider that it is quite possibly the absence of thankfulness in our lives and hearts which creates the difference between people like Job and Habakkuk to people like you and I.

Hebrews 4

[This past we had an amazing speaker named Richard Dahlstrom come speak on Hebrews at Capernwray. The Lord spoke through him in so many ways to my heart, and so my hope is that maybe in some way you can be encouraged as I was. This is a bit from my journal assignment from this week.]


Entering God’s rest

“So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God from His.” (4:9-10)

   To enter into God’s rest we need to understand that everything we could ever need is provided for, by our loving heavenly Father.  We don’t have a care or concern that is outside of His reach, or outside of His care.  In Matthew 6:25 Jesus tells us:

“Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life.”

Then jumping down to Matthew 7:11:

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”

   Christ is asking us to come to Him in faith like a child’s; which is unreserved, carefree, innocent, peaceful, trusting, loving, pure, and secure in the provision of the Father, knowing that no performance is needed for approval and acceptance. 

If we don’t live with child-like faith we will never truly experience the life of Christ in our lives.  Children live in an attitude of expectation on the provision of their fathers.  This is how God is asking us to live.   He wants us to just relax and trust Him, while He takes care of the rest.  But with living with childlike faith there is also a certain extent to which we must live in activity as the Lord works and directs.  There needs to be an attitude of obedience to the Father, when He asks us to do things.   As in the story of Joshua and the Israelites passing through the Jordan (Joshua 3), God told them to step into the water, then the water would recede, allowing them to pass over to the other side on dry ground.  But the crucial point of this story was their obedience, and that first step.  Stepping into the water with faith knowing He promised, and would fulfill, if only they trust.  This is the same sort of faith that the Lord is asking of us.  To step into the waves of life with an assurance that He will come through.  It doesn’t mean it is going to be all easy immediately.  For the Israelites there were armies to face on the other side of the river, but we see here that He promised to walk through the river with them.   Isaiah 43:1-4 holds some key promises to us for this very point:

“But now thus says the LORD, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.  When you pass through the water, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.  For I am the LORD you God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.  Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you.  ..Fear not, for I AM with you.”

  To enter God’s rest, there is always something that He is asking us to do.  We need to remember that it’s not the initial step of faith that will bring us rest, but only God.  So a question to consider is what is my next step of faith in God and His work?