Who is God?...All hail the power... (part 23)

“God is so good” we sing in church. And He is. Truly. God took the Jews from under the Egyptians. He hid David, guided him through campaigns, was with Elijah in the cave, protected me when I was bleeding from intestinal carcinoids, during the move to Kentucky, during heart surgery, and when tending to my mom. He is truly wonderful. He lifted Jesus up to His right hand. He gave me entrance to the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine, and he guided me through Tulane. (Psalms 127:6-20). God is so good.


 “All shall worship Thee and sing…to Thy name”, so says the Psalmist in Psalm 66:4. And when all is said and done, my true worship to the powerful King is keeping my vows that I made, especially in times of trouble (Psalms 66:13-14), giving God His due and acknowledging His power and righteousness, for after all “…Who is so great a god as Our God?: (Psalm 77:13) And this acknowledges that I believe and trust that God is so powerful that He can distribute His power to everyone and that we can all understand Him. (Acts 2:1-4).

Who is God? All hail the power.... (part 22)

I must pray and have no doubt, no matter how long it takes. (Luke 18:1-11). All prayers are answered, but may not be exactly the way we want them answered. I have a friend who married someone she would not have married out in the world because of his poor business sense and because of his upbringing, never mind that he has done well for himself, has been to night school and graduated. And it was an answer to prayer that she have someone so that she wouldn’t be lonely. And she regrets her marriage every day. Why? She doesn’t understand that the man is rough and can be smoothed down by God.

 

Prayer must be persistent. I must pray because my life depends on it. I must pray because God wants me to and desires a relationship. I must be strong. I must have will-power and wait on God. I must not say after a period of time of hearing “no” that God doesn’t care or won’t answer me or I don’t matter. None of these is true and all are lies of Satan. And I must not believe those lies. John 16:23-27 speaks of God wanting a relationship with us and how He gives to us. Romans 8:32 says that God wants that relationship so badly He didn’t even spare His own Son. Yes, He will answer my prayer. But I must not give up.

Who is God? All hail the power... (part 21)

Yet there are times when I wrestle with God, telling Him that His decisions are not the best, and that His judgments are not what I want. Do I win? Certainly not. Did Jacob in Genesis 32:9-33:17? Not really. He went toe-to-toe with an angel of God, probably God Himself in actuality, and may have won the match but lost the use of his hip in the offing. In return, God blessed him, God gave him the blessing of a family that would reach into Christ’s time and in fact lead to the focal point in Christ, and it all came about because of this wrestling match. He taught Jacob and me a valuable lesson. Neither of us are infallible, nor are we without spot. But it is Christ that makes us white, and pure, and holy. What amazes me still is that God blesses me continuously.  And all that does is show me how much I need Him in my life. I need Him. My hip is wounded. He helps me to walk. I am sinking. He holds me up. I need Him. Just as He taught Jacob to depend on Him, for everything from increasing the size of his herd to reconciling with his brother, God teaches me to depend on Him. I am so convinced that He has put me in the hospital so that I would learn to depend on my brothers and sisters in Christ.  I am convinced that He is trying to break me of this tendency to prove myself, to hurt others and myself, and it isn’t until I dig deep and plead with God. While what I do may be construed by many as correct, I am just prideful enough to suggest to God that because of this I am deserving of much more that what I have. And I don’t need to reconcile with others. I soon learn how alone I feel, even though God doesn’t leave me, I myself am guilty about the way I look down on people. And in asking His forgiveness and acknowledging Him then I become a recipient of His blessings – unworthy yet made worthy by the blood of Christ.  Does this mean that I can continue in my attitude? Paul says certainly not (Romans 6)! Because I am made new in Christ my walk should be humble, meek and lowly realizing that without God I am nothing. And without those to help me along the way, I will never excel along the heavenly way. Exodus 17:8-14, the love of friends kept Moses strong, because of people that God put in His life. And that is our purpose, to serve and love one another.

Who is God? All hail the power.... (part 20)

Genesis 24:12-50 teaches me about doing the will of God and getting the rich blessings in return. It is the story of Rebekah  and how she came to be the bride of Isaac. Abraham was in such relationship with God that God gave him instruction and Abraham carried things out. God knows who I need in my life. It may not be the best relationship in the world, it may even seem like a wrong relationship, but God knows what He is doing and He guides me every step of the way. There is a reason for the people God puts in my life, mostly to show me how to grant mercy, how to love without condition, how to love in spite of my feelings. There is good and bad in all of us. We may have been created in God’s image, but because of the free will we can then choose to do the wrong thing and so often do unless we turn our will to God. And that is another reason for the people in our lives. God gave us a free will, but the purpose of that will is to decide whether or not we will ask God to bless us with wisdom of how to deal with the people in our lives or whether we chose to do it on our own.