So have you ever heard anyone say “God is love, God is good, and God is faithful.”
I feel like we hear, or at least I hear that more when things are going good. When jobs are secure, when families are getting along, when a new relationship starts, when things are going “our” way.
The Bible says that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So that means that when people lose their job, when families/friends/relationships are rocky or even falling apart, when people are hurting and in pain…God is still love , He is still good, and He is still faithful. He didn’t change because of our situation/circumstance or problem.
I want so bad to understand this and I do a little more each day. But it’s a journey and I don’t know if I will ever fully understand until I meet Jesus face to face.
I bring all this up, because it has been on my heart lately. With this trip I’m about to go on it makes me think about God’s goodness. You see from the outside God doesn’t look to good or loving or faithful when little children (boys and girls) and women are being raped/abused/exploited every day.
Before I go to these counties, before I look into the eyes of these victims, before I speak anything about God. I have to have an understanding of His attributes and believe that they are solid and true to each person and each situation good or bad.
To be honest, it scares me a little bit…that I may talk to a young girl (maybe even my age) and tell her God is good and that He loves her. And her to look at me and ask, “Have you ever been beaten?” “Have you ever been raped, and not just raped but raped 20+ times a day?” I would have to answer no. Would she then discount what I am telling her? I don’t know…
I won’t have the same testimony as any of the people I come in contact with, but I do have my own. I have been lonely and have found comfort in God. I have been depressed and God has given me joy. I have almost lost a loved one to alcoholism but have seen God restore that person to a sober life. I have been wounded emotionally and God has healed my wounds all the way down to the root. I have been in such dark bondage where I was lying to myself, to my family, to my friends that I didn’t even know what was truth or who I even was…but God broke the chains of bondage, set me free, showed me who I was in Him, and spoke truth over me.
Even though I haven’t personally been through certain things, I do have people close to me that have been abused, raped, molested, and lost someone close to them. They can all look at me and say that yes even though those times were hard, yes I had to get healing or am still working on the healing; God is still good, God is still love and God is still faithful.
Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” I love that verse. It blows me away…and I def. don’t understand it to its full potential. Hmm… to think everything done wrong against me, every pain I’ve experienced, every stupid decision I’ve made; God will somehow down the road use that for good. It could be to make me stronger, to make me more dependent on Him, to bring me closer to someone, to help someone in that same situation. I don’t know how God will work all the things in my life out; but I know that I have already seen things come to past that He has worked for good. When you finally get through a trial/hardship and see how you learned from it or how it actually makes some sense now…it proves God’s faithfulness that He will work all the things of the past and present for good somehow…
I was sharing this analogy with one of my best pals the other day. It was kind of like this…If your training for a marathon…you spend weeks/months running/sweating…maybe you even get hurt, and have to take a couple days off because of shin splints or a hurt knee. Then, you don’t run the race in the end. Umm…excuse me? Ha, what would be the point? That’s what I think about a life without Jesus. If we are just living this life, with no hope, with no reason or purpose for every situation just to die and be buried 6 ft. under…man what kind of life would that be. Everything would be pointless…
But that’s not the way life has to be. We can have hope and live and stand and see the promises of God come to past. Here are some of the good things our good and loving Father offers in place of the not so good…coming from Isaiah 61.
good tidings for the poor;
healing for the brokenhearted,
liberty to the captives,
opening of the prison to those who are bound;
comfort for all who mourn,
beauty for ashes,
oil of joy for mourning,
garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
No one and nothing can do all such things except for One.
