God is good
It bothers me tremendously when people get an answer
to prayer and they say,
God is good
God is good always
Every second of every minute of every hour
He is good when He answers our prayers the way we like,
and when He doesn’t
He is always good
That is who He is
The mistake comes from believing that God only gives us sweetness
There are times when we receive bitterness for His purposes
And then, God is still good
Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me,
except it were given thee from above:
therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin. John 19:11
Those words were spoken when Jesus stood before Pilate
and Pilate was demanding that Jesus respond to Him
Jesus refused to speak at first:
The Jews answered him, We have a law,
and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid;
And went again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus,
Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.
Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me?
knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee,
and have power to release thee? John 19:7-10
We know God does not give us more than we can bear
We also know He is ultimately in charge…of Everything
That means everything
Jesus knew it was His time to be crucified
because God was allowing it to happen
Jesus was not looking forward to it
If it be thy will, let this cup Pass from Me
And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying,
O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me:
nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. Matthew 26:39
He was also willing
He would not let the disciples fight for Him
Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath:
the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? John 18:11
Shall I not accept this?
Job also asked shall I accept good from the hand of God and not evil?
But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips. Job 2:10
People can misunderstand God’s ways
Jesus does not always give us the answers we want,
He doesn’t always do things the way we think He should,
One time I was talking to an old friend
as I was going through some trials at that moment, I felt unloved by God
Do you think God didn’t love Job or Jeremiah or John? she asked
Well, no, I had to answer
When Stephen was being stoned to death,
He saw the Lord seated at the right hand of the Father
But he, being full of the Holy Ghost,
looked up stedfastly into heaven,
and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,
And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened,
and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. Acts 7:55-56
That description of what Stephen saw made them so mad,
they covered their ears
and rushed at Stephen to kill him
That vision gave Stephen the strength he needed
to go through with his martyrdom
God knows what we need
Keeping our eyes fixed on Him,
leaning on Him for all our needs is where our strength lies
Our strength is not in ourselves
neither is it in our worthiness or goodness or holiness before the Lord
it is strength we draw from Him and He has plenty of it
If He is asking us to do something,, no matter how big or small,
He will see us through