Psalm 34:8-10New Living Translation
8 Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!
9 Fear the Lord, you his godly people,
for those who fear him will have all they need.
10 Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry,
but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing.
Word of God for the Children of God
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
God is good, the Bible tells us.
In fact, Jesus says only God is good.
We can repeat the words, but that doesn’t mean we have experienced it.
Often, we feel like we have to experience something to fully understand it.
Is God’s goodness personally real to us or simply a theological statement?
We often struggle to recognize God’s goodness.
Crises arise and constantly vie for our attention.
Problems need fixing, or things get worse.
Others hurt and wound us.
We make our own mistakes and hurt others.
These dark days threaten to obscure, destroy the higher truth of our good God.
Theological statements alone don’t change our hearts.
These declarations are important only insofar as they describe a greater reality.
Yet words can’t even hope to describe the greater reality.
Words are limited.
The only way to understand and know God’s goodness is through personal experience and encounter.
I can say water is wet. And it might be true.
But “water is wet” cannot compare to the experience of jumping in a pool.
It takes two steps to experience God’s goodness personally.
First, we look back on our lives and see the places God has been good to us.
We rehearse and remember when and where God has been good to us.
This includes his salvation and spiritual blessings, as well as individual blessings in our lives.
Second, we start to reframe current struggles as blessings, as well.
Just as God sent his Son into a dying world to speak life and shine his light, he places us in situations where we can do the same.
In these challenges, he tests and exposes our faith and his grace.
While we reframe our challenges, we renew our minds.
Further, facing these hardships in faith reminds us that we don’t have the power or ability to change anything.
Only God can.
We must rest upon the Lord’s grace and goodness, implicitly trusting He acts for our common good even when we don’t currently see it in action.
Taking refuge within our Father, we personally learn how God’s goodness transcends our current situation. How his light shines brighter in the dark.
I’m also here to introduce and unpack another fun phrase called Godfidence.
Godfidence is the level of confidence we have in God.
It is knowing that God is in control and having the confidence to walk in that.
Philippians 4:13 is a great depiction of what Godfidence is, the verse says “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Don’t you feel empowered just from hearing that?
We can do ALL, not some but ALL things through Christ who gives us strength.
What assurance, what joy is it to know that Christ has our back in all situations?
Confidence is seen as self but Godfidence is given only through Jesus Christ.
It is something we can’t form ourselves, only coming from what faith we have in Christ.
People with confidence act different, they walk different, they are different.
People with Godfidence take it to another level, they have a level of confidence that is steadfast and unmatched. People with Godfidence know who the head of their lives is and are not afraid to give themselves over un to God to lead them.
The word may seem funny but it is a clever play on words.
I’m not sure who exactly came up with the merger, but what they created was a way for this new generation of young thinkers to have confidence to think God.
We should all want to maximize God with our God given potential and the best way to do that is having Godfidence.
It is taking self out the way and allowing God to be the head.
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me,”
This hard hitting passage of Scripture is from Galatians 2:20, it is one of the best ways to describe laying down ourselves so that God can have the control.
We must know, implicitly trust in who He is.
We must learn to experience Him.
We must learn to study Him.
Study the scriptures
The Bible is the ultimate manual for life.
The Bible gives us clear directions on how to live our lives and have confidence in our Maker.
The more determined we are to learn of God, the more we can grow, mature, have confidence in God; who always wants us to use and to be filled with the knowledge of His Son our Savior Jesus, Holy Spirit, and fully submit our lives.
Pray. Pray. Pray.
James 5:16 Amplified Bible
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another [your false steps, your offenses], and pray for one another, that you may be healed and restored. The heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man (believer) can accomplish much [when put into action and made effective by God—it is dynamic and can have tremendous power].
Have a fervent prayer life!
Dr. Charles Stanley says “live your life on your knees”.
Never ever stop praying.
God reveals his plans, his purpose for our lives through prayer and speaking with him.
Submit yourself to the Lord
Matthew 16:24-28 English Standard Version
Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
As Matthew 16:24-26 states, we must die to ourselves daily.
God wants us to submit ourselves to Him so that our lives can be lived for him.
God wants to give us Godfidence but it can only be given if we submit our lives.
Trust Him
John 14:1-7 English Standard Version
I Am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life
14 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God;[a] believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?[b] 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”[c] 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.[d] From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
God wants access to us.
God wants us to have access to Him.
The only way to implicitly trust in Him is to give Him complete and total access to us.
Once we do this, a shift will happen in our lives.
God will open up to us in ways we never would have allowed ourselves to believe or to imagine or acknowledge and experience.
THREE THINGS TO MEDITATE UPON
- What are some ways God has shown is goodness to you in the past? Think of both spiritual and situational blessings.
- What are some difficult areas you’re dealing with right now? How can you find God’s goodness within the hardship?
- How can you take time and take refuge in God through the difficulties?
Luke 24:30-35 New American Standard Bible
30 And it came about, when He had reclined at the table with them, that He took the bread and blessed it, and He broke it and began giving it to them. 31 And then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from [a]their sight. 32 They said to one another, “[b]Were our hearts not burning within us when He was speaking to us on the road, while He was [c]explaining the Scriptures to us?” 33 And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together and those who were with them, 34 saying, “The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon!” 35 They began to relate [d]their experiences on the road, and how He was recognized by them at the breaking of the bread.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Praying …
The Lord Rescues People from Many Troubles.
107 Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good,
For His mercy is everlasting.
2 The redeemed of the Lord shall say so,
Those whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy
3 And gathered from the lands,
From the east and from the west,
From the north and from the [a]south.
4 They wandered in the wilderness in a [b]desert region;
They did not find a way to [c]an inhabited city.
5 They were hungry [d]and thirsty;
Their souls felt weak within them.
6 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;
He saved them from their distresses.
7 He also had them walk on a [e]straight way,
To go to [f]an inhabited city.
8 They shall give thanks to the Lord for His mercy,
And for His [g]wonders to the sons of mankind!
9 For He has satisfied the [h]thirsty soul,
And He has filled the hungry soul with what is good.
10 There were those who lived in darkness and in [i]the shadow of death,
Prisoners in misery and [j]chains,
11 Because they had rebelled against the words of God
And rejected the plan of the Most High.
12 Therefore He humbled their heart with labor;
They stumbled and there was no one to help.
13 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;
He saved them from their distresses.
14 He brought them out of darkness and [k]the shadow of death
And broke their bands apart.
15 They shall give thanks to the Lord for His mercy,
And for His [l]wonders to the sons of mankind!
16 For He has shattered gates of bronze
And cut off bars of iron.
17 Fools, because of [m]their rebellious way,
And because of their guilty deeds, were afflicted.
18 Their souls loathed all kinds of food,
And they came close to the gates of death.
19 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;
He saved them from their distresses.
20 He sent His word and healed them,
And saved them from their [n]destruction.
21 They shall give thanks to the Lord for His mercy,
And for His [o]wonders to the sons of mankind!
22 They shall also offer sacrifices of thanksgiving,
And tell of His works with joyful singing.
23 Those who go down to the sea in ships,
Who do business on great waters;
24 They have seen the works of the Lord,
And His [p]wonders in the deep.
25 For He spoke and raised a stormy wind,
Which lifted the waves [q]of the sea.
26 They rose up to the heavens, they went down to the depths;
Their soul melted away in their misery.
27 They reeled and staggered like a drunken person,
And [r]were at their wits’ end.
28 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He brought them out of their distresses.
29 He caused the storm to be still,
So that the waves [s]of the sea were hushed.
30 Then they were glad because they were quiet,
So He guided them to their desired harbor.
31 They shall give thanks to the Lord for His mercy,
And for His [t]wonders to the sons of mankind!
32 They shall also exalt Him in the congregation of the people,
And praise Him at the seat of the elders.
33 He turns rivers into a [u]wilderness,
And springs of water into a thirsty ground;
34 And a fruitful land into a salt waste,
Because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
35 He turns a [v]wilderness into a pool of water,
And a dry land into springs of water;
36 And He has the hungry live there,
So that they may establish [w]an inhabited city,
37 And sow fields and plant vineyards,
And [x]gather a fruitful harvest.
38 He also blesses them and they multiply greatly,
And He does not let their cattle decrease.
39 When they become few and lowly
Because of oppression, misery, and sorrow,
40 He pours contempt upon noblemen
And makes them wander in a pathless wasteland.
41 But He sets the needy [y]securely on high, away from affliction,
And makes his families like a flock.
42 The upright see it and are glad;
But all injustice shuts its mouth.
43 Who is wise? He is to pay attention to these things,
And consider the mercy of the Lord.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 