God is always GOOD!

Psalm 63:4, "I will praise You as long as I live, and in Your name I will lift up my hands."

I hope I never tire of proclaiming the goodness of God! As I sit here at the computer to write this post I realize this is a subject I write about often. Focus, priorities, God's goodness, His redemption, His love, living with Him in the abiding place...no matter how you slice or dice it, this is the theme of My Soul Sings.

As I sat down at the computer to type this post I asked God a question. "Why is it You always seem to have me write about Your goodness, focusing on Your redemptive nature?" His reply to me went something like this, "because the world needs to know. They need to know about My goodness. They need to know I am utterly redemptive. They need to know how much I love them. They need to be constantly reminded to keep their eyes on me. Amy, dear, you need to know too."

Don't you just love it when He is right? And, by the way, He is always right!

In a world full of crisis, chaos and sin we need to be reminded, as believers, this should not be our focus. Remember we are in the world, not of it. It should not consume us. Christ left us with the gift of the Holy Spirit and His resurrection power flows through our veins. As believers we hold the solutions to many of the world's problems...but, we can't effectively impact the world if our eyes aren't on Him. If we continue to focus on the negative we will empower it all the more.

Father God isn't sitting high above worried about the state of the world. Quite the contrary, He is waiting for His body to come to Him and ask Him what His solutions are. He isn't wringing His hands hoping His children make the right choices and then writhing in despair when they don't.

The statement I'm about to make is a topic many would like to debate. I am not here to debate it, nor defend it...I merely want to share it with you. I believe the wrath of God was fully poured out onto Christ on the cross. Like the song lyric says, "the wrath of God was satisfied." We won't see the wrath of God again until He pours it out as described in Revelation 6:16.

Amy, are you saying the natural disasters, torment and destruction we are seeing in the world today isn't the wrath of God punishing us for our sinful living? YES, that is exactly what I am saying. Do I believe God could stop them? Yes, I do...but just because He doesn't stop them, doesn't mean they are sent by His hand. Our charge as believers is to humble ourselves and pray as outlined for us in II Chronicles 7:14.

I don't want to camp on this subject, I think to do so would get us into a theological debate in which I am not educated enough to enter. Also, it would be a major bunny trail from the truth I wish to impart through this post. I will say I think believers get stuck on defending their theology to the point it can take our focus off the main thing...sharing the love of Christ with others and empowering people to walk in victory and relationship with the Creator.

I want to shift gears a little at this point. A friend of mine just this week got partial victory over a major storm in her life. All of us have storms, but this was of tsunami proportions. Many people are saying her life will never be the same. I agree with that statement.

Some even go on to say she will never get the pieces of her life back together again...implying her life is partially destroyed because of the devastation done from the "storm." I emphatically DISAGREE with this statement!

During the process I actually found myself believing her life was destroyed, no matter the outcome, that there were no winners. God gently showed me this belief was wrong and was not at all how I should be thinking as a believer in Christ. To believe her life is beyond the restoration and redemption of Christ is like saying there are some issues beyond His power! Remember Satan is not the equal opposite of God. God is absolute! By believing this statement in essence it's like saying this scheme of the enemy is bigger than God...and that, my friends, is absolutely preposterous!

Now...I'm not saying she doesn't have a battle ahead of her. She will be constantly faced with choices. I hope and pray she keeps her eyes on Christ. He has promised to work things together for our good, but our responsibility in this is to look to Him and follow His ways. We must trust Him and surrender to Him.

Let me try to wrap this up and bring it together for application for you and me in our every day lives:)

As believers we have storms. We have problems. We have trials. But, we also have choices. We are given the free will to run to Jesus or run from Him. We have the choice to keep our eyes on Him, or take them off and try to do things our way. We can out rationalize our faith and end up looking at situations with natural eyes as the world does...I've tried this, have you? It leads to discouragement, despair and ultimately, a victim mentality.

Without going into my friend's storm I just want to say I am encouraged by it. Watching it all play out in front of me and the hearing the testimony on this end is amazing. It has definitely increased my faith.

God is true to His promises! I invite you to search your heart and ask yourself what area do you need Him to fulfill His promises to you? Have you taken your eyes off Him? Have you empowered a lie in your situation? Do you believe the wrath of God is being poured out on you...if so, you may want to re-evaluate your thinking and ask Him for an encounter with His love.

I promise you He is not out to "punish" you. Jesus fulfilled the need for punishment. He said on the cross, "it is finished" that was for you and for me...our sins are covered by the blood of Jesus...we don't have to make atonement for them! This, my friends, is the gospel of Christ!

Father God, I pray for each person reading this post. I ask You to encounter them each individually and personally. Wrap them in Your perfect peace, grace, love and mercy. May they know you not only in head knowledge, but in the heart. I thank You Papa for sending us Jesus. I thank You we don't have to make atonement for our sin. I thank You for desiring a relationship with us free from striving. I thank You that You are always good and loving toward all You have made. I repent Lord for areas in which I have made you smaller than my problems, than the world's problems. Show me Lord Your solutions so I may be a problem solver, not a problem maker or problem enabler. I praise You Lord for all You have done and all You are doing in my life. I will sing of Your love forever as long as I have breath! I love You, my Daddy! I thank you for making my soul sing! AMEN!