god is good

And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
    for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,  Luke 1:76

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,  Lamentations 3:25

In one of my Bible study groups I asked what in our lives do we struggle to completely turn over to God. Being all women, it wasn’t surprising that most answered our children. We worry, we fear, we hover, we protect. We lay away at night thinking of their future. We pray continuously for those who aren’t yet saved.

For so many of us, however, that role becomes overwhelming and overbearing. It puts our relationships with our children and maybe even our spouses in peril. The solution? To see God as not only our father but the good father who loves our children even more than we do, which seems impossible. When I finally turned my adult children over to God, I first had to trust Him and know Him. I had to realize how good He is and how much He loves me too.

Now imagine the parents of John the Baptist. His father, Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied the enormous responsibility his just born son would be required to put on his shoulders. Both his mother and father seemed to understand the weight of the role in announcing the coming Messiah. A role I don’t think most parents would want for their children. A nice quiet life as a fisherman with a wife who bears him many children – yes, that’s what Elizabeth probably wanted for John.

But no. John became a bit odd. He wore strange clothes and ate bugs. He spoke to anyone who would listen about the Messiah. His message was sometimes confusing and almost heretical. Yet we don’t see in scripture his parents lamenting. They probably did. But I would surmise based on the prophecy and Elizabeth’s faithfulness that they lamented to God.

They lifted their son up to the God Most High for protection and direction. They trusted in His goodness. I’m sure if they were still alive when John sat in his final jail cell they wept. But they also knew their son had been faithful to God and the Messiah had been faithful to him. And as a parent, what more, truly should we ask.

Click here to listen to today’s song: Goodness of God

The path of the righteous is level; you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth.”
Isaiah 26:7

My BSGs (Bible Study girls) are currently doing an advent study. In it we are reminded of the many promises of God through Jesus Christ. These are the promises that so many Christians are most familiar – hope, peace, love and joy through trusting in the Lord. And even though I’ve been a Christian for some time now, being reminded of the Peace of God through righteousness is so necessary in this broken world.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give 
thanks in all circumstances; for this is 
God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 
Do not quench the Spirit.  
1 Thessalonians 5:16-19

We humans need constant communication with God, constant reminders of His promises, constant reminders of the reason why He sent us His son, Christ Jesus. Why? Because we are constantly bombarded with opposite messages. The chaos of this world desires to bring us to our knees in fear and worry. It never stops. But God’s peace, love and joy are solid promises.

I’ve been led to call this process of constant communication, “holding the line.” We have a narrow path which God wants us to walk with Him. For some of us it means constantly looking down at that line and grasping tightly to His promises. For others the line is a gentle garden path in which they easily stay within the boundaries. In discovering the many promises of God, we can grasp them tightly as we work our way through those bombshells thrown at us by this broken world.

"Suddenly a great company of the  
heavenly host appeared with the angel,  
praising God and saying, 
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, 
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”  
Luke 2:13-14

Notice the very last line of this glorious verse? “To whom His favor rests.” When I read this recently, I realized that last part is frequently left off. “Peace on Earth.” Taking this out of context changes the meaning of this promise. Yes, God has promised to never leave us, but so many of His promises are actually a covenant.

Covenant:
“a written agreement or promise usually under seal between two or more parties especially for the performance of some action”

“Between two or more parties.” That means God promises and we promise back. An agreement. Throughout the Book of Isaiah we read of two worlds – the broken agreements and the renewed ones. God’s promises can only come to completion when we do our part – when we grab hold of that line and follow Him.

I’ve heard there are more than 5,400 of those promises in the Old and New Testament. In this new series I want to remind us of just 25 of them and help to bring to the forefront our role in our heavenly handshake.

God is doing 10,000 things in your life and you may only be aware of 3 of them.
John Piper

Join me, along with my guest writer, Todd Shetter, in Isaiah, these next few weeks as we learn how to “Hold The Line” and prepare to celebrate the gift of God’s greatest covenant with us – the gift and promise of Jesus Christ.

Tag: god is good

Day 17 Goodness of God

His Promises Are A Covenant