People follow religious ideas and sayings. It is easy to do. We hear and see other people speaking of God and the things of God and others chime right in. One of the catch phrases that is used over and over is "God is good!" and "God answered my prayer." I want you to know that I believe in God's goodness with all my heart and He answers the prayers of the righteous (I Pet. 3:12). What is troubling is the usage of these sayings only when things go our way. That's when people seem to praise God and His goodness.
We need to be thankful in all things. Thankfulness should be the heart of those in Christ Jesus. However, when things don't go smoothly or we face a difficulty in our lives, isn't God still good? Doesn't God still answer our prayers? When we pray and things don't turn out as we asked for, can we believe God said 'no'? My point is I am not trying to pick at certain issues but to show that our attitudes are reflected in difficulties as well as times of ease and goodness. How many of us get on our knees and thank the Lord through a difficulty? Paul reminded the Philippians that rather than let anxiety rule, let your requests be made known to God by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving (Phil. 4:6)! There are a lot of things that can cause us to be anxious but we need to have the right attitude, taking the anxiety to God with thankfulness. Difficulties are what we need at times because they are what builds true, godly character within us and it is that character that will take us to hoping in God (Rom. 5:3-5). Difficulties serve a great purpose if we have the right attitude. Paul needed difficulties in his life to teach him to trust and rely on God (II Cor. 1:8-10) rather than circumstances.
God is good and God answers prayer but His goodness prevails in difficulties and His answers are sometimes no for our benefit. That should make us pause and not use saying so flippant without thought.
2 comments:
I believe there is another point to be made here along with making sure we have the right attitude.
What is often meant by the phrase "God is good" is that "God is good to me". No, people just do not come out and say it like that, but that is their meaning. The same is true about the phrase "God answered my prayers". The focus of that phrase is not God, but rather "my".
This focus on self is what leads to the wrong attitude. In addition, this focus on self becomes even more intense when it comes to difficult times and challenges. If things work out for us (self) and then we are happy to lift our hearts up to God in praise about overcomming. If they do not work out, then we are even more focused on self and not God all along feeding the wrong attitude.
Great stuff...thank you!!!
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