Tag: God’s goodness
Contemplating God’s Love!
Scripture reading for June 24th: Psalms 104-106
One of the attributes of God is that He is good! God has been good to me and I have personally experienced His goodness for over 67 years! Today’s psalms reflect on the goodness of God to His people because of who He is. God and His goodness is the greatest subject that the human mind could contemplate!
God is clothed in splendor and majesty! (Psalm 104:1-2) He has stretched out the heavens like a tent canopy and decorated the sky with jewels of light. He is the one who uses the winds as His messengers and the lightening bolts as His servants. (Psalm 104:4) He set the earth on its foundations and formed it’s surface, covering it with water. He created the plants, animals, the birds of the air and fish of the sea. (Psalm 104:24-25) This majestic God is the source of all food, breath, and life! (Psalm 104:33-35)
In Psalm 105 God is worshiped for His faithfulness to His covenant with His people! (Psalm 105:8-9) The people of God have been cared for by God’s covenant love, from saving them from famine through Joseph to the deliverance from Egypt through Moses and the miracles wrought through his hands. God brought the people out of slavery, loaded down with silver and gold. He fed them and watered them on their journey (Psalm 105:37-41). This was because of His promises to Abraham and the covenant that God was faithful to keep! He is worthy of praise!
God’s goodness is without limit and His love is from everlasting to everlasting! (Psalm 106:1) God’s love also includes His loving discipline! Some of the judgments recorded here include the wilderness experience where a generation that would not believe died! God dealt with unbelief, rebellion, idolatry, grumbling and disobedience! (Psalm 106: 32-39) God’s people had a history of unfaithfulness, but God has remained faithful! Even when He handed them over to the nations, He heard their cry and because of His great love, and He relented! (Psalm 106:44-46) God deserves praise from everlasting to everlasting!
Take a moment today to remember God and His faithfulness to you personally. Look back over your life and offer thanks and worship for God’s creation, provision, healing, deliverance and discipline!
The power of prayer!
Scripture reading for July 26th: Isaiah 36-39
Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The Lord sent the prophet Isaiah to tell him to get his house in order because he was going to die. (Isaiah 38:1) In the next verse, we find Hezekiah turning his face to the wall. He humbly prayed and wept bitterly: “Remember, O Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” (Isaiah 38:2) Isaiah heard the Lord speak to him again. He was to go back to Hezekiah and tell him that the Lord had heard his prayer and would add 15 years to his life. The Lord also assured him that He would deliver the king and Jerusalem from the Assyrians. (Isaiah 38:4-6)
God also gave Hezekiah a special sign of His favor and mercy. He made the sunlight go back ten steps on the staircase of Ahaz. As God had promised more time, He demonstrated His power to turn back the clock! What a powerful answer to prayer and what grace for a visual sign of the answer!
First, Hezekiah simply reminded God of his life of faith! (James 5:16) He had lived by faith for many years and had a habit of trusting God. Second, Hezekiah was sincere and did not just put on a show. He was real with God about his desire to live. Third, he did not demand anything from God, but simply appealed to the one who held His life in His hands. (Isaiah 38:5) God saw a sincere heart of faith and it moved Him. Faith always moves God and pleases Him! (Mark 11:22-24) (Hebrews 11:6)
If you are facing an impossible situation today, try simply asking God like Hezekiah and trust Him to hear and answer! Here is Hezekiah’s response: “But what can I say: He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done this. I will walk humbly all my years because of this anguish of my soul. Lord, by such things men live; and my spirit finds life in them too. You restored me to health and let me live. Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back.” Isaiah 38:15-17
His Enduring Love!
Scripture reading for July 1st: Psalms 135-139
“I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word. When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stouthearted.” (Psalm 138:2-3)
The psalmist, David, was not near God’s temple but bowed down toward it in reverence and longing. He desired to praise God with all of his heart. As he thought about God, God’s love and faithfulness were the source of his praise. David had experienced God’s love and faithfulness personally in the midst of many trials of his early life. God was with him as he tended his father’s sheep in the wilderness, giving him victory over the lion and the bear. God’s faithfulness enabled him to stand up to Goliath, the Philistine giant, and bring him down. (1st Samuel 17:45)
God’s love and faithfulness are revealed in His name and His word! David stated that God had exalted His name and word above all things! God’s name is above every name and every ‘god’. His name is holy and those who know his name personally and act in that name have supernatural abilities. God’s word is forever settled in the heavens. Faith comes by hearing God’s word and true faith acts. When we know God personally by name and know His powerful word, God’s love and faithfulness become reality to us and we call on Him and He answers!
“May all the kings of the earth praise you, O Lord, when they hear the words of your mouth. May they sing of the ways of the Lord, for the glory of the Lord is great.” (Psalm 138:4-5)
When we are filled with God’s love and His word, our desires begin to line up with His desires. Notice how David’s prayer in this psalm goes up for the nations and their leaders. David wants them to know God’s words, to worship Him, and to bring Him glory!
“Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You preserve my life; You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes, with Your right hand you save me. The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me; Your love, O Lord, endures forever–You will not abandon the works of your hands.” (Psalm 138:7-8) Through heartfelt worship, faith rises with boldness. David confidently states his trust in God’s enduring love!