There are four great,
life-changing truths why God is So Good, as revealed by the Prophets:
1.
God Is So Good
– He Gives Us The Desire To Be More Like Him
The Lord
says: “... let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and
know me, that I am the Lord; I act
with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these
things I delight, says the Lord.”
— Jeremiah 9:24 (NRSV)
As we reflect on the
greatness of God, as it occurs through the realm of continual Divine Work, which
is the nature of life, the character of God—steadfast love, justice, and
righteousness—inspires us to follow hard after the example of Jesus.
Let it be our sole boast:
to know God in such a way that a desire to grow to be more like Jesus would
overcome the otherwise selfish desires.
God is so good to make
this truth known—worship is only worthy of the Lord.
2.
God Is So Good
– He Reveals To Us Our Sin
Isaiah said, “Woe is me! I am lost,
for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my
eyes have seen the King, the Lord
of hosts!”
— Isaiah 6:5 (NRSV)
To a spiritual outsider,
this fact—that I’m inherently sinful—must be a terrible load.
But just as we are
convicted of the Spirit, to know the truth of our ways, we are also convicted
of the resplendent freedom that lay before us in noting the filth of our
condition. Out of that, as a direct result, Christ is risen within us; to
avenge and reprise what the prince of this world, Satan, has sought to take.
What the outsider might
see as a harrowing castigation, the saved person knows as their salvation. Life
will never be, and can never be, the same again. How great it is to know how
much we need God.
God is so good to make
this truth known—to know my sinful nature frees me to know the Lord.
3.
God Is So Good
– He Gives us The Ability To Interpret Our World
An evil one “... shall seduce with
intrigue those who violate the covenant; but the people who are loyal to their
God shall stand firm and take action.”
— Daniel 11:32 (NRSV)
There are many calamitous
events unfolding, and to be unfolded. The Great Day of the Lord is a terrible day. Indeed, the best
evidence of these facts—Great Days of the Lord—is
history; pick any period and it will attest to the Day of the Lord. Yet, The Day is still to emerge.
Our knowledge of the
tremulous events of our time, the eon of evil, resounds all the more the
Presence of God in, and of, these events. The great disasters, depressions, and
prophecies of doom reinforce one fact: the world is temporary and God is permanent.
We, therefore, interpret
the world in a way that assures us of God; though the world will pass away, our
spirits will remain because we are the eternal property of the living God.
God is so good to make
this truth known—to stand firm is the blessing of the Lord.
4.
God Is So Good
– He Makes Us Calmer, Stronger, and More Secure
“There is no one who can stay God’s
hand or say to him, ‘What are you doing?’”
— Daniel 4:35d-e (NRSV)
There is no one in control
of life like God.
That sentence bears
repeating. The Lord can turn the
universe on its end; how pitiful is it, then, that we limit the Divine capacity
to change a single life? And if one life can be changed around—ours, as is
apparent—will the Spirit relent before making us calmer, stronger, and more secure,
as we dwell fervently in truth? God is so good to make this truth known—peace
is available to those who know their God.
With all things in the
palm of the Divine will, our God will not stop in blessing us if we more fully
desire knowledge of the Almighty.
***
Four reasons God’s so good:
He gives us the desire to be more like Him, He reveals to us our sin, He gives us
the ability to interpret our world, and He makes us calmer, stronger, and more secure.
© 2013 S. J. Wickham.
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