All good things are with God

All of us people wants to be blessed with good things in our life. In fact, many people are running for these good things! Fame, power, money and health, I think everyone wants to get these things. But the truth is that even though a man already gets his grip on something that he wants, he still longs and run towards to get more. It’s just that, I believe, it has been a nature of us humans to be uncontented with what we have, which I believe is a product of worldliness.

I am not saying that gaining these things are bad, I just want to say that running towards these things can make you bad. Greediness and uncontentment could be developed within our system if we still continue to run towards these things.

“So is there a way where we can gain these good things without being contaminated with greediness and uncontentment?”

I am happy to say “YES”, there is. Now let’s look at this verse:

I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing."

-Psalm 16:2, NIV

The only way is to be with the Lord, just like what the verse above wants to tell you. Actually, this verse just compliments the preaching of our youth pastor, ate Faythe before, and I would just want to share it here. She used Psalm 34:10 for that preaching. That verse says: “The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing” (NIV).

In her preaching, she said that true prosperity can be seen with the lions. The lion is called the “king of the jungle”, and he never grew hungry because the whole jungle is like a huge refrigerator to him. We all know that a lion is strong, but according to the verse, he still may grow weak and hungry. How ironic is it that the strong lion that can eat whatever he wants in a jungle can still grow weak and hungry! He still may lack his strength and could not find his food, but on the contrary, the verse says that those who seek the Lord will lack no good thing! Now, let’s reflect on this point and on the verse I’ve written above.

I want you to imagine a refrigerator and let’s use it as a representation of God. Let’s also look at a magnet and use it as a representation of all these “good things”. You can probably imagine that the magnet is sticking to the refrigerator, like all the good things sticking to God. And now I want you to think of a paper. This paper represents a man. Now, if that man runs towards these good things, he would never get a good grip on all of them. Just like a paper trying to stick itself to the magnet, you know that he would just fall. BUT if the man runs after God, he is like a paper between the refrigerator and the magnet. When a man is with God, all “good things” follows him, as these things follows God.

This is what it meant in the verse that “apart from God, we have no good thing”. So, if you want to be blessed with good things in your life, don’t run towards them, but instead, run towards God. Like what is said in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (NIV).

Original link for the photo: http://www.turnbacktogod.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/Seek-God.jpg

God, Our Deliverer

LORD my God, I take refuge in you;
save and deliver me from all who pursue me,
or they will tear me apart like a lion
and rip me to pieces with no one to rescue me

            -Psalm 7:1-2, NIV

Who are they that keeps on pursuing us? Who are they that will tear us apart like a lion? Well I believe that it could be the struggles, pressures and trials that we are having in our lives.

These the struggles, pressures and trials that we are having can literally kill us. Yes, they will tear us apart like a lion, just like what David said in this psalm. As long as we are living here on earth, these things will just keep on pursuing us. They will always be there right behind us trying to put us down, but we have to know that everyone has their own troubles running after them, and no one can ever avoid that.

We can never be exempted from these troubles, and each one of us needs to face them. We can be broken at times because of these, and we can never avoid that. There are those people who literally carried over the brokenness they had after facing their troubles all throughout their lives and could not stand up anymore, but that doesn’t mean that everyone are going to experience the same thing that happened to them. So let’s start from this: What could be the reason why there are people who can’t get back up when troubles came into their life?

The only reason, I believe, is that they could have put too much trust into this world, and maybe in their flesh. Why did I say so? Well, this world offers a lot of trouble for us, and its ways are also the main reason why we have been separated with God. When these troubles strike the person who only put his trust into the world, he could feel so broken thinking that no one could help him, forgetting that there is a God. And also, as I have said earlier, even trusting your flesh can lead you to your own discouragement. Why? Because at the time you failed on what you are doing, it would be harder for you to get back up knowing that you have failed though you trust in yourself.

So what should we do? If we can’t trust this world, or anyone else, or even ourselves, who then should we trust? Well, let’s imitate David. Well, not just imitate, but have the same heart that David has. Let’s give our full trust only to the Lord! We can never deliver ourselves from the troubles in this world, and no one in the world can do it for us, only God.

Troubles can put us down to the ground and make us broken. We can try to get back up, but we still may fall. But if we only put our trust to the Lord, He will simply carry us on eagle’s wings and put us into a place away from these troubles so that we could start walking again, just like what He did to the Israelites in Egypt.

So, to whom shall we put our trust? Let’s give all our hope to Him who can carry us. Not to ourselves, but to the Lord, our deliverer.

Original link for the photo: http://www.yonghwankim.com/?mid=upperroom&page=2&listStyle=gallery&document_srl=2564