the BLESSING
Identifying the Goodness of God
November 2nd, 2022
Romans 8:31-32, ‘So what does all this mean? If God has determined to stand with us, tell me, who then could ever stand against us? For God has proved His love by giving us His greatest treasure, the gift of His Son. And since God freely offered Him up as the sacrifice of us all. He certainly won’t withhold from us anything else He has to give.’ (TPT)
the Good, Good Father
As I age, as I begin to look more through the rearview mirror than the front windshield, as I reconcile losses and commemorate wins, as I reflect, I find myself more fully aware and in awe of God’s goodness than ever before.
He is a good, good Father. There is none like Him. As parents, we want good things for our children; we want goodness for them. We do our best to help them avoid pitfalls and life’s snares. We hurt when they struggle and we rejoice when they reach small achievements or large ones. We think ahead to special occasions, and we plan for ways we can celebrate them; we are ready and attentive to hear their cries and praise their efforts. When something befalls our kids, it’s as if it happened ten times more severely and significantly to us. We desire victories for them, and if we could take their defeats, we would.
So, is it any wonder, our heavenly Father gave the life of His one and only unique Son on behalf of our sin-sick condition? He gave Him so we could be brought out of the miry pits mankind was buried in and overcome the snares with which the enemy was trapping us. So we could be adopted as sons and daughters of the Most High God and share in the inheritance God set aside for His children. So we could know victory and not defeat. So He could identify with us and we with Him. So we could reflect the goodness of the Son and shed the badness the enemy has attempted to clothe us in. So we could know the gift of salvation and walk in that freedom and enter into the eternal hope God predestined for us.
There is this image of a beggar, scantily clad in ill-fitting, moth-eaten clothing, who is trudging down the dusty road of life, his head hung in shame and his hand held out for even just a crumb the world might have to offer. Streams of people move around him as if he isn’t even existent, and truthfully, he recognizes that is why he is where he is at in life, because he has been overlooked and under-valued and unloved, alone even in a crowd. Just as he is about to crawl in a ditch to die of hunger and humiliation and loneliness, a child gazes at him in curiosity and confusion, saddened by what he sees. The child grasps him by the hand and says,
“Mister, come home with me. I am an only son and I have more than enough and my father taught me to give away what I have so it isn’t wasted.” The homeless man allows himself to be pulled along, and suddenly finds himself looking up at the most incredible mansion he has ever seen. Tears began to clot his vision as he notices the father standing in the doorway, waving them closer. The child tugs him, exclaiming, “Father, look who I found! I brought this man home to meet you and so he could eat and relax, clean up and experience the same goodness I know everyday.” “Welcome!” the Father says, “Come inside. Make yourself at home. We’ve been waiting for you.”
Beautiful you, God is more than enough, and He chose you before the foundation of the world, to be His child. Welcome to the family. We’ve been waiting for you. Isn’t it a Blessing to be included?!
Genesis 35:11, ‘”I am God and I am more than enough.”’ (TPT)
