Come Up Here And See

When I started my blog, I had made a commitment that I would have a weekly post but when that weekly time was drawing near and if I had not completed that post panic would arise in me. That panic was always evil darts from the enemy of accusation of “Lisa how could you, an uneducated woman, you have not gone to seminary, you do not know enough of God’s Word that you will have enough to speak about Jesus for a weekly post, you do not read the Bible enough, you have failed before and you will fail again. How could you possibly have something to write weekly about Jesus”. If I was not careful to stand against those negative thoughts, I would hold onto them instead of being prepared to stand against them. I had to remember that those evil darts of wicked thoughts came from our enemy who is the father of all lies.

Thankfully, one Sunday in church we sang a song called “Bravo” written by Youthoria that tells us of the Goodness of God the Father, His Greatness, Righteousness and His Love that He gave His Son for us. It is such a beautiful song.

A couple of lines in the song hit me “Father thank You for your goodness, Your love will never end and I will always sing of Your righteousness and for all my years I will tell Your story of how You gave Your son and You paved the way so that forever mankind in freedom sing”

When I heard that “for all my years I will tell your story” I was encouraged and the panic that had been attacking my thoughts of how I could ever have something to write about Jesus in my weekly blog post dissipated.

The reason that the panic disappeared is because of the truth that Jesus is the King of kings, Author of all Life, Mighty God and that He is good. So, when I heard the song in our worship service “for all my years I will tell your story” I wanted to jump, dance, scream and shout Yes Lord for all my years I will have something to write about Your goodness.

From the beginning with creation, we see that God is good:

Genesis 1:31 ESV And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

The Word of God declares that God is good, almighty, compassionate, dependable, eternal, faithful, holy, all knowing, all powerful, ever present, forgiving, just, merciful, loving, and the list goes on and we will continue to learn more of Him as we spend more time in His presence, reading His Word and letting His Word read us.

Moses had this awesome experience when the two stone tablets were replaced:

Exodus 34: 5-6 NKJV ⁵ Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. ⁶ And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,

Wow, just ponder what that would have been like to be there. As spectacular as that sounds and oh my goodness, I would have loved to be standing in a nearby bush able to see that but still Moses with prophet’s eyes was looking forward to the days that we live in knowing that one day that the Messiah, the Lord Jesus would come, and that everyone could experience the goodness of God.

I believe this is why in the Old Testament we read about the goodness of God from those who spent time in the presence of the Lord learning of His goodness and how abundant His goodness truly is and that He is faithful for all generations:

Psalm 27:13 ESV I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!

Nahum 1:7 ESV The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; He knows those who take refuge in Him.

Psalm 31:19 ESV Oh, how abundant is Your goodness, which You have stored up for those who fear You and worked for those who take refuge in You, in the sight of the children of mankind!

Psalm 119:68 ESV You are good and do good; teach me Your statutes.

Psalm 100:5 ESV For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.

They had faith or in other words they trusted that God the Father would provide a Messiah to rescue them, so they kept looking, believing because of the goodness of God. Today we have the honour of living in the promise land that God the Father has been faithful to give His Son knowing that His love will never end. Not only that but it is also the goodness of God that leads men unto repentance or back to Him:

John 3: 16-17 NASB ¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.

Romans 2: 4 NKJV Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

As I was meditating, pondering on the goodness of God I thought about Galatians Chapter 5 that Paul is teaching us to walk or surrender to the Holy Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. He lists the deeds of the flesh in Galatians 5: 19-21 and the list is full of immoral actions, sorcery, strife, anger, jealousy, etc and that if we practice such things, we will not inherit the kingdom of God. But then Paul talks about the Fruit of the Spirit of God and one of them is goodness.

Galatians 5: 22-23 TLB ²² But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, He will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control; and here there is no conflict with Jewish laws.

How exciting is that not only can we sing of the goodness of God for all eternity, but He will also produce that fruit of goodness in us. Amazing.

So Holy Spirit I pray that our eyes and hearts will be open to know that You are good, and a stronghold that we can run home to You. I also pray that we would see that it is only by the goodness of God that all men will come to repentance and that we can be encouraged knowing that our lost ones that will hunger for Your goodness. Holy Spirit I also pray that we would surrender our lives to You so that Your fruits are produced in our lives so that we are able to walk like You and in doing that all men would want to know You more.  In Jesus Name, Amen.