Today, I am thankful for the goodness of God.
While I could most definitely end the post HERE, and it would be sufficient... let me expand a little bit :)
I grew up believing that blessings and healing and victory belong to those who believe. Which is such a wonderful thought. But the flipside of that belief was that failure, sickness, and suffering were signs of not believing enough .
So while I was taught to instinctively respond to "God is good" with "All the time", it was silently understood in my little heart that God's goodness is only reflected in the goodness of my own life.
God's goodness could certainly not be present in the failure, in the sickness, or in the suffering. For those, clearly, were signs of a wayward heart, a faltering faith, an unexposed sin.
Basically anything but blessing, success, and victory boiled down to not being enough.
Not praying enough.
Not believing enough.
Not claiming victory enough.
Not speaking words of faith enough.
I completely believed that the difficult and painful circumstances were never God's will for me. And if I found myself in the midst of them, then obviously I needed to change/fix/do something to get back in "right-standing" with God, so things would turn around.
I think back NOW and wonder how I processed all the beautiful stories of suffering and hurt that I read in God's Word.
You know, stories like Stephen being killed because of His faith. (Acts 6:8-8:1). And Joseph's decades of wrongful imprisonment. (Genesis 39). There's also Paul's beatings, jail sentences, and never-abating thorn in the flesh. John the Baptist, Jesus' own cousin, was beheaded. and I only need to mention Job.
I don't know what I did with these stories (plus countless more) that clearly flew in the face of the you-will-never-have-issues-if-you-have-enough-faith breed of Christianity that I had embraced.
Because the truth of the matter is this: There are so many things in life that I simply cannot and will not believe my way out of.
The rain falls on the just and the unjust. "Bad" things happen to God-fearing people. Jesus allows suffering.
A faith that only acknowledges the goodness of the God when things are going great isn't faith at all. It's nothing but a sandcastle mirage of the real thing.
Faith is believing that God is good even when life seems to be anything but.
Faith is believing that God is good even when my world seems to be caving in.
Even when the sickness isn't healed.
Even when the pain gets worse.
Even when there seems to be sudden loss and uncertainty.
Even when lies are spreading.
Even when I'm scared.
Even when I don't know the next step.
Faith is looking at the world spinning out of control and choosing to believe that the God of the Universe is still in control. Perfect control.
God is good. and God is Sovereign. Faith is believing both those truths at the same time.
Life is hard. We all know this. It would be unrealistic to state the opposite.
BUT STILL. God is Sovereign, and God is good.
ALL the time.
No matter what.
This is what I'm thankful for today :)
Praying today that you revel in the goodness of our amazing God, finding comfort in the perfection of His Sovereignty... no matter your circumstances.
You are loved,
Lyss :)
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