This was a post from a person I'm friends with on FB:
Just wanted to share that My Dear Lord has been sooooo good to me today! Yesterday I turned our central air conditioning unit on and it never cooled the house below 79 degrees. However, the guy who previously put the system in came by today and corrected that problem free of charge! Then just a few minutes ago I was able to get my printer going again after it not printing for a couple of months.
I don't want to single this person out or seem too critical, but I wanted to ask a question.
Wouldn't God STILL be good even IF the situation had been completely opposite? If BOTH circumstances had been translated into expensive repairs, isn't the intimation that God is NOT good? That's what has bothered me when something good happens, and when the situation has been favorable to us, then God must really love us. Isn't His nature ALWAYS good?
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Yeah, those types of 'testimonies' of God's goodness have bugged me for a long time!
I imagine Paul listening to some of these testimonies and throwing up! LOL Especially when compared to his testimony:
"...in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness — besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches."
If God is good only when things are going good for us, then God wasn't very good to Paul!
ah ha ha ha. So funny. . . and I thought my life of ease was symbolic of how good God is. I hasten to add, that I am very grateful when something lovely happens in a difficult situation. Such as my sister living after having her life endangered by a mysterious infection after a caesarean that had the 6 top specialists in BC scrambling for answers. But in the same week my friends husband was diagnosed with cancer and another friend saw his uncle die, prayers to the contrary of no avail.
One song that I really like is, 'Blessed be Your name' I hope you don't mind me posting the lyrics, but one of the most poignant memories I have of this song was when 2 people, who had just undergone the early loss of one their wife and the other their teenage son, were standing rather near to each other, singing this song, with arms raised in the air. It was absolutely beautiful. True worship as they sang these words from their hearts:
Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name
Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name
Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name
Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name
Every blessing You pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name
Still, though, what's wrong with recognizing the good things in life as God's blessings, too? :-)
It's not as though the guy said, "I'm so much more blessed than the time I had to buy a new transmission for the car" or "My neighbor's AC needs a new fan, so she's way less blessed than me."
Prosperity gospel is one (bad) thing. Thanking God for goods in our life is a different (good) thing, isn't it?
I like the song, Lewis family!
Joel, thanks for the Scripture - it really helps to "see" where Paul was.
Lewis Family (I hate not knowing your first name) ;-) That was my point, Alison/Enide, that God is good no matter the circumstance. This is something I have been coming to realize lately - slowly. That circumstances, good or bad (these are relative terms anyway, because "all things work together....")SHOULD NOT be the determining factor about whether we think God is good or not.
I NEVER said there was anything wrong with recognizing the good things in life as God's blessings - merely that (again) God is GOOD no matter our limited perspective.
I thought so. . . :) My first name is Becky. I am the one called Becky and Dan Lewis on facebook. i really should take to signing my name eh!
~ Becky
What ever I wanted to say, Joel already said :) Thanks Joel! You nailed it...
The creation is clearly a great and glorious event. While God is benevolent that doesn't mean He will stop bad things from happening to us but if you pray he will help you figure out what is going on and what you should do about it. I am looking forward to hearing from you tomorrow and getting your reactions to my book, Not of My Making: Bullying, Scapegoating and Misconduct in Churches.
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