God is good!

I know I know that, but today God caught me by surprise and reminded me once again of how good He is.

Today at early morning prayer, I prayed that God wouldn’t let me grow complacent in my relationship with Him. I’ve been learning so much about Him lately and have started invested more into our relationship. However, I was a little bit scared that I would stop learning and just stay at the same spot I’ve been the past couple weeks. I asked God to show me something about His character that I hadn’t thought of lately. I asked Him to teach me something new. I asked and expected Him to do something great. And He did!

(just some background….) Lately I’ve been learning what it means to be content. I’ve realized that a lot of things that I put stock into or trust in or strive for are not necessarily what God wants for my life. I want to want Him more than anything on earth - a future relationship, a job that I enjoy, classes that don’t bore me, or being somewhere I am comfortable. I’ve been prating that when i’m not liking being at LeTourneau, He would give me joy; that when I really want to go home, He would give me patience and perseverance; that when I really want to be in a relationship, I would find my fulfillment in Him. (and now back to the story….)

My Bible class got done about a half hour early today, so I took my homework down to the cafe to get some coffee and to study before Chapel. Once I got into the rythm of my studies, I didn’t want to quit. I really didn’t want to go to chapel. I complained to myself, tryed to convince myself out of it, but ended up reasoning it through and deciding to go. I showed up about 5 minutes late and the worship had already started. I found a seat, flung my backpack on the floor, and started to sing along.

The second song we sang was Chris Tomlin’s “Our God”, which is a song that has become very special to me in the last few months. God is so mighty. So big! So powerful. And yet…He is for ME! How amazing.

Suddenly it hit me. God is For me. for ME! FOR me. God doesn’t want me to be miserable. God wants me to be joyful! I’ve been so focused on sacrificing what I think will bring me joy here on earth, that I’ve forgotten why. I’ve forgotten that God doesn’t ask me to sacrifice those desires because He wants me to be lonely and poor and miserable. He asks me to sacrifice those things because He knows what will bring me TRUE joy - not just the cheep replicate I can find here on earth.

I know God loves me. I know that God has a plan for me. But I’d forgotten that on top of all that, God actually wants me to have joy. Maybe not to be happy all the time, but to have joy. God knows where joy comes from. I don’t. I forget all the time. God knows what will bring me joy and God wants me to give up what I think will bring joy in return for what really will. How awesome is it that the Lord of all the universe would love His creation so much that He actually cares about who we are, where we are going, and what will bring us joy. Oh, how He loves.

Thank you Lord, for answering prayer. Thank you for revealing something new to me today!

Romans 8:28-31

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?