But God

My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me,
And from the words of My groaning? But you are holy. (Psalms 22:1, 3a NKJV)

 

There are times when all believers may feel like God has gone on vacation.  We should not be too surprised when we experience this feeling, as David and even Jesus on the Cross felt abandoned.  The key to dealing with these times is to say, as David did, but God is good.

In 1871 Christian businessman, Horatio Spafford lost everything in the great Chicago Fire.  He planned a trip for his wife and four daughters to Britain. They traveled ahead of him and their ship was rammed by another vessel. His wife survived, but his daughters perished. Spafford immediately left to meet his wife, and as his ocean liner approached the area where his daughters had drowned, he composed the song that has become a memorial to the sovereign goodness of God, “It is Well with My Soul.”  

It is not really easy to feel abandoned.  God knows your pain.  Jesus expressed his pain on the Cross and David often conveyed his grief without condemnation from God.  Yet, in David’s dialogue with God, most often there was a point where David said, but God is good.  In our sufferings, we must always have that “but God moment.”

At some point in our conversation with God, it is necessary to interject in good times and in bad, the sovereignty of God.  All things that happen to us may not be caused by God, but he at least allows them.  A very therapeutic thing for us is to realize that in all our trials and struggles, God is still in control, and for all who love him are for our ultimate good.  Remember Joseph, who told his brothers who had sold him into slavery, you meant it for evil “but God” meant it for good (Genesis 5:20).

 If we never come to the “but God” stage of our trials, we will devolve into the “why God” juncture and start to doubt the character of God.  Spafford eloquently wrote, “When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.”

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website:https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

Stinking Thinking

But Moses said before the Lord, “Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh heed me?” (Exodus 6:30 NKJV)

 

Clearly, Moses did not view himself as up to the task that God had placed before him. Things can start out as an honest evaluation of your deficiencies, yet repeated over and over again, can devolve from humility to inferiority.  It is never wise to deny what God says you can do, it’s “stinking thinking.”

Moses declared to God that he had uncircumcised lips, or he was unskilled in speech.  We all realize that in ourselves we are all unable complete the tasks that God gives us to do, yet there is a point in time where we have to take our eyes off of ourselves and put them on God.  In Exodus 4: 14 the Lord became angry with Moses as he tried to persuade the Lord of his incompetence in speaking.  At this point, Moses was not walking in humility.  God never gets angry with humility.  The Lord responded to Moses, “So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord?”  God was trying to get Moses’ eyes of himself and look to the Lord. Humility is not dwelling on our weaknesses but recognizing our strengths and weaknesses, and understanding that God can use both.  It believes that God’s grace is bigger than all our deficiencies.  

Even the best of us, like Moses, sometimes get into “stinking thinking.  Don’t bore the Lord, he is well acquainted with your inadequacies.  Don’t continually replay the narrative of unbelief. You are what God says you are.  It is never humility to say you can’t when God says you can.

 Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes, the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

The Ultimate Question

Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? (Job 21:6 NLT)

Satan asked a question about Job that every believer must eventually answer.  The inquiry questioned Job’s motive.  Religious people down through the ages have dwelt on what they have done for God and ignored why.  

 

Love is always based on what we give and not receive.  Christ’s example of love for us is exemplified by his giving his very life for us. Inherent in Satan’s question to God, is the suggestion that Job loved what he got from the Lord more the God himself. The enemy was questioning Job’s motive. The implication was evil, but it still needed to be answered.  

I have observed that people who are serious about loving and serving God most always go through a period where God seems to take and not give.  People, like Job’s counselors, will be adept at pointing out your flaws as the reason for your trials.  They may be right about your faults, but wrong about their being the reason you are suffering.  Job teaches us that life is more than a cause and effect relationship.  Job was suffering not because he was unrighteous but righteous, and so might you be.

In this story, there are two high points of Job’s character.  When Job’s wife says to him, “Curse God and die” (Job 2:9) and he replies, “Shall we accept good from God and not accept adversity?” (v.10)   Also, when Job says, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him” (Job 13:15).  If God is not good all the time, he is not good at all.  God never causes evil, but he does sometimes allow it to touch us. Are you suffering my friend? God may be asking you the ultimate question.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com