God's Goodness

Well, I have proven to be quite the unfaithful blogger!  Expecting a baby any day and devoting a week to making Christmas chocolates has apparently been ‘enough to do’ for this gal.  It’s not that I haven’t been thinking of many things to share…in fact, during my breaks between dipping batches of truffles, I have sat down with my laptop and begun writing a number of posts, but none of them seemed to go anywhere, so I figured “why push it?”  God will lead when the time is right.

This morning, as usual, I spent my first moments in bed alone praying.  Lately, I have been focusing a great deal on God’s goodness, His promises, and I’ve been claiming them in faith—just as an aside, this is something I find that I must do regularly throughout the day as life comes at me!  I’m just beginning to wrap my mind around the fact that we, as believers, can ask God for His blessings, that we can expect His goodness.  Not because we’ve done anything to deserve it…far from it, but because HE IS good and He has offered so much to us if only we ask.  I knew this morning as I was praying that this is something that I want to share, that I need to share.  

These are just a few of the verses that I have been praying of late, choosing to accept as gifts from my loving Father, and applying them to my life as God reveals the application.

Let me start by addressing an important truth:  “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19)

If He says it, He means it, and He’ll follow through!  Let that knowledge apply to these special verses.

Deuteronomy 28:12~ The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand:

Deuteronomy 30:5~  And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.

Deuteronomy 30:9~  And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers: 

Deuteronomy 31:6~  Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.

Psalm 84:11~  For the Lord our God is a sun and a shield; the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

Psalm 85:12a~ Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good;

James 1:17~    Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

 Psalm 16:11~ You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore

 Psalm 37:4~   Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

 Hebrews 4:16~  Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

1 John 5:14~      And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

 Matt. 18:19~  Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.

Mark 11:23-24~  For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

After allowing these verses to sink in, I had to ask myself, how much am I missing out on because I fail to ask?  Or because I simply accept less out of ignorance, or even shame…

Then I read these words.

Ephesians 3:14-20~    For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,  that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,  that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Not only is He willing and able to hear us and answer our prayers, to bless us with good things if we’re delighting in Him and seeking His will…but He is willing and able to DO MORE THAN WE COULD EVER EVEN THINK TO ASK!  And it’s all for His glory. 

I too pray, as Paul did, that whoever reads this would be rooted and grounded in love, that you may be able to comprehend the width and length and depth and height of Christ’s love, and that you may be filled with the fullness of God!