Complete in Thee: God is Good!

Friday, October 2, 2009

God is Good!

Yesterday I posted Psalm 46, one of my favorite psalms as it reminds me to rest in the character and promises of God. "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted..."
"God is our refuge and strength; a very present help in trouble."

When I think refuge, I think of a place where one can hide-- from a storm, from a battle... perhaps someone hiding from an enemy in an inner chamber of an old castle or monastery. God has granted us to be able to "hide" in Him-- He provides shelter and protection in the storms of life. When the storms of trial or temptation break over you, you can flee to Him to hide you. He is so good!

When I think strength, I think of a soldier in battle, growing weary, perhaps, or unable to stand against an enemy so much stronger than himself. We are in a battle. There is an enemy stronger than ourselves, and sometimes we feel like we have been fighting so long and so hard, and that we cannot go on anymore. That is when we must acknowledge our weakness to God and go to HIM for our strength. He is the God who created and sustains the world by the world of His power. He is stronger than our strongest foe. We can trust Him!

"A very present help" can also we translated, "a well-proved help." God is both! For one thing, He is always present to help us. To those who follow Him, He has said "I will never leave you nor forsake you." He is also well-proved. When has He ever broken His word? When has He ever failed to keep His promises? The question is rhetorical; the answer is "never". Day by day, God continues to prove to us His love, His mercy, His justice, His patience, His greatness, His power, and His faithfulness. Therefore, we can go to Him and trust Him in times of trouble!

This week He has proved again that He is the help of those who seek Him.

Perhaps you have heard of the earthquake in the South Pacific, and of the predicted tsunamis. When Mommy told me about them, we were concerned for our many missionary friends in the area of Fiji and American Samoa. We have been praying for their safety in the face of these impending dangers.

This morning, we got an update from Scott and Katie, who are missionaries in American Samoa.

Dear Praying Friends,

I am sure that most of you have heard that American Samoa and
Samoa experienced an earthquake at 6:45 a.m. local time. Fifteen minutes
later a tsunami struck parts of the islands. We only felt the
earthquake where we live. We live in the middle of the island and
farther inland. Several other spots were totally devastated. Boats
were taken out of the water and placed on the land. Cars were left in
the sides of buildings. Houses and buildings were flattened. Some
areas were only flooded, while some had 15-20 foot waves hit them. All
of our church members are okay, but everyone seems to know someone
either killed or injured by the tsunami. Thank you to everyone who has
inquired about our safety. We know that it could of been much worse.
Please continue to pray for the people here, especially those who have
lost loved ones and lost everything they owned. We keep on reminding
the people of God's goodness and grace to help in time of need.

Serving our Lord,

Scot and Katie Daku

Isn't God good? He is our refuge, our strength, an ever-present, well-proved help in times of trouble. We can trust Him!

"Be still and know that I am God." Know that He is in control, guiding the events of life for His glory and our good. "The Lord our hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge."

1 comment:

Margaret Dashwood said...: Great post Melanie!!

Bethany; October 3, 2009 at 5:34 PM

PRAYER REQUESTS

"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints" (Ephesians 6:18)

PLEASE PRAY...

* That I would draw nearer to God every day and never allow my relationship to become stagnant ritual; particularly that I would grow in the area of submission, patience, 1 Corinthians 13 love, and wholehearted devotion

* That I might have wisdom as I edit "The Marquis' Daughter"; that the Lord would bless and work through it; and that I might find just the right publisher for it.

* That I would submit to the Lord's work in my life, whatever it may be; that I would take each opportunity He brings me (even the seemingly hard ones) to draw closer to Him and point others to Him

*That our Etsy shop might be successful and that it would be a means by which we can glorify God and share the Gospel

Ephesians 2:1-10

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

"The heart set to do the Father's will need never fear defeat. His promises of guidance may be fully counted upon. Does it make sense to believe that the Shepherd would care less about getting His sheep where He wants them to go than they care about getting there?"

"God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will, a will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to."

"If God, like a father, denies us what we want now it is in order to give us some far better thing later on. The will of God, we can rest assured, is invariably a better thing."

"Obedience to God's will is the secret of spiritual knowledge and insight. It is not willingness to know, but willingness to DO (obey) God's will that brings certainty."

"Victory over all the circumstances of life comes not by might, nor by power, but by a practical confidence in God and by allowing His Spirit to dwell in our hearts and control our actions and emotions. Learn in the days of ease and comfort, to think in terms of the prayer that follows, so that when the days of hardship come you will be fully prepared and equipped to meet them."

"And shall I pray, Oh, change Thy will, my Father,
Until it be according unto mine?
Ah no, Lord, no, that never could be, rather
I pray Thee, Blend my human will with Thine."

"A crucified life cannot be self-assertive. It cannot protect itself. It cannot be startled into resentful words. The cup that is full of sweet water cannot spill bitter-tasting drops, however sharply it is knocked."

"And as we rest our hearts upon what we know (the certainty of the ultimate triumph of good), leaving what we do not know to the Love that has led us all our life long, the peace of God enters into us and abides. And then we see our light."

[A Practicing Christian]...it means that every single act and feeling, every experience, whether pleasant or unpleasant, must be referred to God. It means looking at everything as something that comes from Him, and always looking to Him and asking His will first, and saying, "How would he wish me to deal with this?"

Christ says: "Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want you."

"I was not born to be free. I was born to adore and to obey."

"What is saving but taking us out of the dark into the light? There is no salvation but to know God and grow like Him."

"I will not try to convince you of anything about God. I cannot. You must know Him. I only tell you I believe in Him with all my heart. You must ask Him to explain Himself to you, and not take it for granted that He has done you a wrong because He has done what you do not like. Whether you seek Him or not, He will do you justice. But He cannot explain Himself unless you seek Him."

"Sometimes a thunderbolt will shoot from a clear sky; and sometimes into the life of a peaceful individual, without warning of gathered storm, something terrible will fall. And from that moment everything is changed. That life is no more what it was. Better it ought to be, worse it may be. The result depends on the life itself and it's response to the invading storm of trouble. Forever after, it's spiritual weather is altered. But for the one who believes in God, such rending and frightful catastrophies never come but where they are turned around for good in his own life and in other lives he touches."