the BLESSING
Identifying the Goodness of God
November 30th, 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)
HINDSIGHT: 2020
We have one month left of this year, 2022. Several years ago, we encountered 2020. We were so unsuspecting. I remember things were going pretty well in my life. The Lord had reconciled so many things for me the year before. I had seen His hand and was learning the ways that He worked, and He was greatly BUSY. I was falling in love, head over heels type of love, not only with Him, but also with the man the Lord had gifted me with and brought into my life. I had moved into a new season, and He was changing me from the outside in, a complete overhaul. My relationship with my parents was growing at a rate of speed I had never seen it grow and good things were happening. I was facing great heartache over my daughters and the brokenness with them, but the Lord was also giving me a personal tour, deep but such gentle and kind guidance into the mistakes I had made as their mom. What Satan intended for harm, I knew then and I still believe now, the Lord was and is using for all of our good and growth. Someday. He was also increasing the depth of my relationship with my son, and the introspection He was letting me know myself by, was profound.
The world was fat too. Things were fluffy in life. The economy was stout and the foundation which we were established on was stable. Life was good. Then, there was this little word that started circulating, whispered about, then spoken aloud, then screamed at the top of life’s lungs. Covid. Have you ever played Jenga? That’s what it reminded me of. Everything put in place and stalwart and upright, and then one little block got moved and then another, one then was removed and another. And suddenly, it all toppled.
It has been toppling since. We are no longer the same people standing on that once-upon-a-time foundation. Our innocence has been stripped and our naivete stomped on. We have been humbled, jaded, hardened, and to be honest, in some of us, it’s just made us mean, uncaring, desensitized. I remember realizing that everyone was thinking 2021 was magically going to dong at 12:01 on January 1st, and everything wondrously was going to shift, and we’d go back to where we were at a year earlier, before it all upended. But that didn’t happen, and in some ways 2021 was even more difficult. As we unburied ourselves, tried to unearth our hopes and dreams, only to find they were shell-shocked and toppled and replaced with realities we never thought we’d know, but suddenly did. And like an uninvited houseguest who had overstayed their welcome and refused to leave, we reckoned this new normal was here to stay.
While we are angrier and more short-fused today, we are also wiser and more corrupt. We are wrapping up this year soon, and tying the string around its details to hold it all together and in place, and it seems to refuse to tidy up. Loose strands of tangled pain stick out everywhere, so many unsolved untruths chaotically poking out in disarray. I’m finding it impossible to file this year away, and I suddenly am wondering if that’s because the Lord is miraculously still working it all out on our behalf. He is working all things out, I keep hearing in my spirit, and it is a blessing to hear His gentle whisper inside just when the loud raucous news outside attempts to be overpowering, a cacophony.
So, tonight, I am going to set it aside, this anxiousness about these last couple of weeks of 2022 which still lie ahead, and I intend to see what God is going to do, how He is working all things out, and how He is still fully in control. He is, ya know? Fully and magnificently in control…the God of the Universe.
Isaiah 40:22-29, ‘God sits high above the round ball of earth. The people look like mere ants. He stretches out the skies like a canvas—yes, like a tent canvas to live under. He ignores what all the princes say and do. The rulers of the earth count for nothing. Princes and rulers don’t amount to much. Like seeds barely rooted, just sprouted, they shrivel when God blows on them. Like flecks of chaff, they’re gone with the wind. “So—who is like Me? Who holds a candle to Me?” says The Holy.
Look at the night skies: Who do you think made all this? Who marches this army of stars out each night, counts them off, calls each by name—so magnificent! so powerful!—and never overlooks a single one? Why would you ever complain, O Jacob, or, whine, Israel, saying, “God has lost track of me. He doesn’t care what happens to me”? Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening? God doesn’t come and go. God lasts. He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine. He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath. And he knows everything, inside and out.’ (MSG)
