To preface this, I am reading and studying through Proverbs with some dear friends. Before I started reading, I looked at the background and themes of this book and found that it has been predominately defined as a book of simple illustrations that expose us to the fundamental realities about life. After only reading the first few chapters, I have been completely blown away. One thing that continually stands out to me is the goodness of our Lord.
Because this has caused me to fall more in love with the God I serve, I thought I’d share a few ways Proverbs has shown me that the Lord is exactly as His Word teaches, He is good!
Broadly speaking, Proverbs has a theme of wisdom – and tells the reader how to gain wisdom and apply it to their lives. That in and of itself screams of God’s goodness, that He in His infinite knowledge, has chosen to not only grant us wisdom, but also to show and teach us how to apply this God-sent gift to our lives. I don’t know about you, but God knows I need His wisdom with every passing moment and I’m so thankful that He gives me the wisdom that I need on a daily basis.
One of my favorites – “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6. We, as Christians, tend to complicate things more than we should, me included. God, the One who sees how everything is going to play out from beginning to end, asks us to trust Him. He tells us that we should not lean on our own finite understanding that will eventually fail us anyway. Why is that so hard? Our sinful nature as humans tends to make us feel that we have the capability to do and fix everything on our own, which is far from true. We make things so much harder for ourselves than God intends them to be. Anyway, example two of God’s goodness: He has promised to make our paths straight if we just trust Him. Everything may not make sense all the time and many times we may wonder where we are.. But that’s the beauty of it, it doesn’t have to make sense and we don’t have to know it all because we have such confidence in a God that loves us and wants the best for us.
“The beautiful thing about this adventure called faith is that we can count on Him never to lead us astray.” — Chuck Swindoll.
From the end of Proverbs 3 (verses 31-35), I can see more of the Lord’s goodness towards believers. While the god of this world tries to lure us with the things of this world, God makes it clear that those things aren’t worth it. He is actually disgusted with those who walk in those corrupt ways. While we see God’s hatred towards wicked ways, we see His blessings for the believer. While we are living on this corrupt planet longing for our true home, it may seem as though evil is winning and overcoming, but (here comes the Lord’s goodness toward us) we can rest in the fact that without a shadow of a doubt God is on our side and working on our behalf and in the end we will triumph! Praise the Lord. May believers follow the ways of Christ and stick it out ‘til the end.
“Let us not envy prosperous oppressors; far be it from the disciples of Christ to choose any of their ways. Divine favor is shown to the humble believer.” – Matthew Henry.
Take away: God is so good! He never ceases to amaze me!
"You Are Good"
Kari Jobe
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