God is Good

"Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?. . .No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us."
Romans 8:35, 37

I went outside tonight, after watching the nightly TV series (on DVD), The Waltons, with my grandpa, and just prayed. The nearest house is probably 700 feet away, if not farther, so there was no one around. So I prayed out loud, as I like to do because doing so keeps me focused.

And as I prayed I prayed that I would truly begin to understand and apply what God has really been teaching me: God is good. Okay, you say, yes very true. You applaud and agree. But what do I mean by apply?

Tell Him that.

Dealing with Sin
I hate sinning--an attitude that the Holy Spirit has instilled into me. But my flesh still loves it, as you probably understand. So I still sin, and far too frequently! Typically, I feel remorseful, sick to my stomach, miserable, et cetera.

But guilt is not of Christ. I have to be careful to distinguish between remorse that leads to repentance and guilt. You see,my normal response to sinning is to feel so guilty that I run from God in a sense; I feel guilty in His presence so I run from it. Don't talk to Him. But I can't live that way! When we sin, we need to run to Him!

"So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most."
Hebrews 4:16

What God has taught me about this verse is that it is true all the time! You see, forgiveness is grace. But also: discipline is grace! We have to understand that God has promised to forgive us, but we need to come to Him and repent, not run from fear. God is good! He is so good that He longs for us to come running back to Him when we fall down! At the thrown of God we find grace, and grace is discipline, because God is the Righteous Judge. He doesn't say He'll pat us on the back and say "it's okay," but He will say, "I forgive you, but I will discipline you so that you do not do it again." See? Discipline is grace.

But then we can't linger on our shame, because that is a self-centered attitude. I've had issues with this--just constantly saying, "I'm sorry. I'm sooo stupid," and so forth. NO! We have to accept God's forgiveness and then go on to say, "God is good!" That is how we apply. Tell Him, "You are so good!" That is what God wants from us all the time, even after we fall to temptation, not to keep confessing and feeling guilty. In other words, He wants us to get our eyes off ourselves and back onto Him!

Dealing with Circumstances
The same goes with any circumstances we are in. Even in the most difficult circumstances, it is still self-contentedness to focus on the problems. We need to learn to just say, "God, you are good!" Constantly! It doesn't matter if you feel His goodness at the moment. If we only told Him "You are holy" when we felt like worshiping Him, we'd never say it enough. We say, "God, please let me experience your goodness! Ease my suffering (test, too hard of homework, trouble with friends, et cetera)!" Now, I'm not saying that's wrong, because the promise of John 16:23-24 holds true (be sure to read all around that verse, though). But we have to learn that God is good even when we can't tell! Because, as my pastor in Siloam Springs has said, God wants us to say, "You are good," and He will reply, "Yes, I am, and let me show you how."

You see, again? It's about getting our eyes off of ourselves and onto Christ.

Dealing with Silence
So often when I talk to God, I feel like He's not listening. Now, I know that is probably because I have not learned to hear His voice like I should. But even so, it is not my place to not worship Him even when I feel silence. True faith worships God even when He seems silent. He still wants us to say, "God, you are good!"



All I am saying is, we need to learn to worship God all the time! Even when we sin and feel horrible. Even when our circumstances are terrible. Even when we feel neglected or even abandoned by God! This is such a standard Truth, and yet I don't apply it far too often! I've been learning that something I naturally do when I am alone and talking to God is go over all my problems. It's not that they aren't valid, or that the Lord doesn't want to hear them. It's just that in the process of focusing on me, I forget to focus on Him! I don't want to do that. I'm trying more and more just to over and over and over tell Him, "You are good!" It's a practice in humility. It's a practice in strong faith. It's a practice in loving God. Only when our eyes are on Him can we move forward, especially as the days grow more and more evil, as Christ said they would (Luke 21:5-36).

Come to the throne of Grace boldly, even if it is to repent of sin, because He loves us, and He is good!