Sunday, May 15, 2016

Careful What You Ask For

God is Goodness

he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven. Psalm 78:24

I want it all and I want it now! That sounds like a battle cry from many people we know, and maybe even ourselves at times. What is so interesting is that same selfish desire probably hasn’t changed much since creation. Eve had everything she could possibly want, but she had to have the forbidden fruit too. And the Israelites were not satisfied with just manna from heaven – they demanded meat. While in the desert outside of Egypt, God had provided just enough for them to be sustained, and He never provided too much so they would continue to trust in Him for their provision. But God grew tired of their grumbling and let them have their way. They feasted on quail to their hearts delight, however, their lack of trust angered the Lord and they were all destroyed.

Thousands of years have passed since these events happened, but people’s wants and needs have not changed. Nor has God’s goodness changed, always providing the perfect amount. It is just sometimes we don’t think we’ve been given enough or we don’t see from where our provision truly comes.

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31

Because God is goodness, we can trust that all our needs will be met through Christ.

Sunday, May 1, 2016

People Pleasers

God is Love

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

The world is full of people pleasers. And while that is a good thing for those of us who are service providers, we all know it is exhausting, if not impossible, to constantly please others. Looking at the motive, we see ourselves striving for acceptance and love. To win over hearts, we can fall into the trap of believing we must earn acceptance. And often we find no matter what we do or say, it is never enough to feel at peace.

But the Bible tells us that we are loved and accepted unconditionally by God. We can never be separated from God’s love no matter what we do or don’t do. And, no good works will provide that love, because it is a gift from God. God loved us first and chose us to be in a relationship with him – nothing is required to receive the gift other than the desire to accept God’s saving grace which was made available to us through Jesus. We don’t need to be perfect, we just need to be His.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

Because God is love, through Christ we are completely loved and accepted.