Good God

I was just speaking at a festival in the U.S with Lecrae which was such a blessing in so many ways. God did amazing things as I had the privilege to meet many many many people and I had many conversations hearing about what God was doing in these people’s lives…and in some cases what God wasn’t doing in their lives. It’s interesting how we get into the mindset that God isn’t doing anything, eh?

The reality is most of us seem to carry around a scorecard when it comes to God and how He is working in our lives…or how He isn’t.

Most often when life doesn’t go our way…with the frustrations, disappointments and discouragements we all experience at some point along the road, we create a list of the things that God hasn’t done for us – past and present. When we dwell on the area that isn’t going the way that we want, we make that version of the story the narrative which we see God working through. In the midst of these circumstances, I can’t tell you how many people I have encountered – Christian and non-Christian who have a narrative of God which isn’t based on who God is in the Bible, but is based on who God is in their circumstances…

In their relationship…
In their marriage…
In their family…
In their friendships…
In their finances…
In their office…
In their school…
In their health…
In their church
In their social life…
In their happiness…

He’s a good God unless one of those things changes…And if one of those things are not going the way we think they should, we tend to hold God accountable for the bad in our lives. Our response is then to overlook all the good that still surrounds us because we are so focused on the thing that is negative as we blame God, get angry and want little to do with Him. We don’t “anakephalaiosasthai” everything. (Look at the last blog titled “Everything”)

Here’s the problem with the God scorecard – The list of things in your life that didn’t go your way. If you’re going to play that game – Then what do you do with all the good in your life? If you hold God accountable for all the bad which has come your way and respond accordingly, then what about the good which has also come your way? How do you respond to that? Because that list is very very very long and I’m willing to bet that list is much longer than the other list you have made and holding onto – That scorecard game will never ever work when it comes to God. He has blessed us so much…and we tend to overlook it, forget it, ignore it or simply take these daily blessings for granted.

We kinda see this in one of the more popular stories in the Bible with the lost son. There’s the youngest who is the star of the story. He basically tells his father he wished he was dead and asks for his inheritance. He leaves his father and goes into the world expecting that life to fulfill him in a way which he could only imagine – He ends up broke and broken. He then decides to come home – Now with the Jewish traditions and customs, if you did what the youngest son did, and went out and blew all your money on the Gentiles, there would be a ceremony waiting for you if you decided to come back home. They called this the kezazah which means “cutting off”. That person would ceremonially be banished where a clay pot filled with burnt beans was broken at the feet of the offender as a visual symbol that the community rejects that person forever. So we know the story with the father running to greet his son, as well as protect his son from the kezazah, and from there he decides to throw this awesome party for him with some bling bling and a quarter pounder with cheese.

….and then there’s the other son.

When he heard what was happening for his brother, he gets angry and refuses to acknowledge and take part in all the good that was happening right in front of him. He begins focusing on himself and how he never was given a party, or even goat – He plays the scorecard game and makes that the narrative of his story which becomes the lens he views everything through. He oversees everything which his father has given him and done over the years – He forgets that he is in fact the oldest therefore he has the birthrights. The family name, the authority, double the portion and blessings over the youngest son. Rather than focusing on that list and more, he focuses on the other one…The list of what he doesn’t have. His father says – “My son… ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.” – It’s almost like his father is saying, open your eyes and look all around you. You have been blessed and given so much more than what you feel you have in this moment. Despite what the oldest son felt in the moment and what he decided to focus on with the negative, his father never stopped blessing him at any point. It’s almost like the father is telling the oldest son to stop, look around and take note of the things you have taken for granted.

For myself in this moment, as I stop, look around  and take note of how blessed I am – I currently have a roof over my head covering me from the rain outside, I have a blanket covering my legs to keep me warm, I have a DQ Blizzard right beside me, and I am on a computer which gives me access to every bit of information in the world through the internet. If I decide to play the scorecard game, and tally everything up, it will be impossible to keep count of what good God is doing in my life and how He blesses me every single day starting from my first breath in the morning. The Psalms say may I (we) never forget all the good things He does for me.

 Some of the good things we take for granted are the things other people in this world are praying for.

Here is your challenge…

Stop for a moment and look around you

Take note and write down 3 ways you are currently blessed

Share them and together we can be reminded of the good God is doing today