You are good, all the time, all the time, You are good!

I was going through some old sermon notes today, trying to organize what I was going to keep and how I was going to keep it. When you are under an amazing teacher who showers you with truth it is impossible to keep every single note you wildly scratch, but I don’t dare want it to be a seed (a Word) I only heard and did not sow. I ran across this sentence and I most certainly felt led to share this with you. This truth might possibly be just what is or has been holding you back from total surrender to one amazing God.

What comes to your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you because it determines EVERYTHING!

This is actually a topic that the Lord has been drilling into my head over the past year or so and I wanted to throw it out there to you guys to maybe get you to think if this could be an area of hang up for you. Let’s first look at some ways we can think of God that will impact us in a negative way:

1. Unconcerned
2. Uninvolved
3. Dominant
4. Bossy
5. Wishy Washy
6. All smiles and love

This list could be a mile long, but let’s look at the opposites of just these and see what kind of impact they could have

1. Totally Concerned- Thus we take everything to Him because we are positive He cares
2. Totally Involved- Thus believing that if we ask He will most certainly be doing something about it, well even if we don’t ask (because although we are commanded to ask, if everything were left to us asking we’d certainly be in trouble too), we know He is working because He is God.
3. Our Authority- Not dominant as in mean, but our security could lie in the fact that He has the last call.
4. Loving Guidance- Not bossy, always having our best and other’s best interest at heart, but He does have a will He wants carried out.
5. His Yes means Yes and His No means NO- If God says it in His word or in personal revelation then it is a done deal, no need to wonder, remind, fret, touch base, done deal.
6. Finally, what if we had the right kind of reverential fear, again like a loving parent who we knew loved us, but we also knew that no meant no, and that they would pop our behinds if we refused to listen. We would certainly jump at obedience a little faster, don’t you think.

The things that God has been drilling into my head lately derive from many smaller pieces yet all fall into one all encompassing word. My smaller pieces are His Word is total truth, so ANYTHING it says is what God is so I must know the Word to know God. Secondly, He loves us but He means business. If He says go, I say yes Sir. If He says no, I say yes Sir. If He prompts, I am to listen and if I choose to spend time away from Him and His presence, I am the one to pay. And finally, the all encompassing truth that has changed the way I immediately think of God thus changing the way I immediately respond to Him is simply that He is good, all the time. Literally, all the time. Even when life makes no sense, when tragedies happen, when my favorite candidate doesn’t make it to the election or when I don’t like the way my husband is acting that day, God is good, all the time. His Word says that He sets all authority and that He permits any and everything that happens to His children, even if He didn’t will it (because He never wills sin), He must permit it. I sometimes don’t think we realize just how heart broken God is with some of the things He has to permit in order to bring His name the most glory, in order that we will fall flat on our face in repentance, in order for others to see Christ in our lives.

Now that Cross is crawling, I have got to allow a few bumps and bruises along the way. Sure I would love to pad everything down, but that isn’t how this world works. We have to fall a lot to learn how to avoid certain turns and twists, in order to get our feet up on the ground and the whole way I think we forget that our Good God is watching, wishing that that apple still hung on the tree.

Guys, above all else, God is good. I once heard an amazing testimony about a nation being impacted for Christ where previously missionaries were literally forbidden to go. That door opened all because of a tsunami where literally thousands were killed, but we could sometimes choose the alternative which could have been millions in hell. From that day forward, I think I got the hint that I don’t have a CLUE what God is up to and I just need to trust that He is good. I have felt sorry for others and myself for having financial struggles while following whole heartedly after the Lord, but if you asked me today what the greatest part of this last year has been, I would say being stripped of all my STUFF. I have since been disgusted with my need for perfect paint and spot free carpet. God has used this so called “injustice” to open my spiritual eyes to a focus that was so far from eternity that I am certain it made Him sick!

I pray that this rambling at least makes you ask yourself some questions. What do you think of initially when you think of God? And how does that mindset either spur you along or get you into a world of hurt? Above all else our hearts are deceitful so please, please seek the Word for your answer here. Feelings do guide us but they are not necessarily (or better yet rarely) truth. Search this one out my friend and believe that He is good, all the time! Stop questioning the creator of the universe for every nail you break (or see your friend break) and start believing that He is good, even if it doesn’t feel good to you!

Searching out core truths,
Kelly