“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever”
Psalm
107:1
We have all been there. Either something amazing and
mind-blowing happens, or something tragic occurs and we are so quick to pull
God off the backburner and incorporate him in our struggle or praise him for
his goodness. We Tweet, post to Facebook, or Instagram a verse or a joyous
picture and there is absolutely nothing wrong with these posts…But if we are
only recognizing God’s goodness in particular life occurrences, what does this
say about our view of God’s faithfulness? What does it say about our motives of
being in sync with the Lord? Isn’t this limiting the power and sovereignty of
the omniscient Creator of the universe?
NEWS FLASH:
God is good always, whether we recognize it
or not.
God’s goodness is unconditional. He is good when you get
your very first job, when you get promoted, and when you get fired. He is good
when you get that college acceptance letter, when a married couple has their
first child, and when a loved one passes away.
When you choose to realize God’s goodness only in joyous circumstances,
you are limiting God’s power to work in trials and adversity and you are
choosing only to rejoice in the Lord when things go well. In other words,
“things go YOUR way”.
The flip side to that is only recognizing God’s power when
the storm hits.
When we treat God like a dusty first-aid kit that we leave
in the medicine cabinet only to treat deep wounds, we aren’t wanting more of
God; we’re wanting the side-effects of having an in-tune relationship with him.
To put it like one of
my mentors and youth pastors, Stan Rhoden, said:
“We don’t want God;
we want his stuff”
How do we fix this? How can we be aware of the unconditional
goodness and faithfulness of God ALL of the time?
I believe this problem exposes our lack of thankfulness to
the Lord due to complacency. Becoming thankful and rejoicing in all
circumstances is the key to seeing God’s goodness all of the time.
“Rejoice always, pray continually, give
thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” 1
Thessalonians 5:16-18
Pray for the Lord to open your eyes to his workings in your
life, big or small. When we do this, we become more aware of God’s working in
our life no matter what the consequences. When we begin to see the small things
the Lord is doing in our lives, our eyes become more accustomed to recognizing
God’s goodness anywhere we look and we become more amazed by his power and his
faithfulness to us on a daily basis.
God’s goodness is unconditional…
It’s just a matter of us recognizing it.
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