God Is A Good God
God is a good God. The devil is a bad devil.
There is nothing good in the devil. There is nothing bad in God.
God is good all the time. All the time God is good.
The above form part of the foundational teachings that I was grounded in during my first year as a believer in 1995. Back then, in at least 2 of the live praise and worship CD recordings by Hosanna Integrity worship leader Don Moen, he would repeatedly emphasise the fact that God is good all the time. I've been greatly blessed as I listened to those albums and used them for my personal praise and worship moments. To date, these teachings are deeply ingrained within me and have helped me in overcoming many of the challenges and down moments of my life.
In case some may think these statements sound rather cliche, they are nonetheless not without Scriptural basis. Psalm 107:1 says Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Psalm 100:5 says For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.
God's truth is His Word. And the Word of God is right and true. It has the power to change our lives. And since the Word clearly says that God is good, there is no doubt or question about that. We do not and should not add anything to it, neither do we subtract anything from it.
I always believe that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). At some point of our lives, however, being human, we may tend to lean on our own understanding and question the goodness of God. When things go wrong, we may start to grumble and murmur and ask 'Why?'. When we do not get what we want, we may start wondering if God is unfair. When answers to our prayers are delayed, we may think that God has forgotten us. But there is one important truth that Pastor Ming has taught us during Bible study. And that is: It is the wrong thing to ask 'Why?'. The right thing to ask should be 'What can I learn from this?'. Asking 'Why?' will only get ourselves stuck in our past and hinder us from moving on in life. Asking 'Why?' will result in further frustration because we do not have all the answers to every question in our minds. Instead, we are to come into the Presence of God again and get a fresh revelation from Him. When we are down and out, we shouldn't give up on God. We need to hear the rhema Word of God speaking to us again. We need to trust God and believe that He is still at work in our lives. We need to learn to give thanks in every circumstance. We do not thank God for the bad things but we thank God for the good things. Yet we are called to thank God in everything.
Life was never smooth-sailing for me. There were many things in life which I wanted and yet did not succeed in getting. For one, I did not manage to get into the secondary school that I wanted so badly. I did not manage to get the kind of 'O' level results that i expected to get. I did not manage to get into the JC of my choice. I did not make it into NUS the first time I took my 'A' levels in 1998, and had to face the disappointment of seeing most of my classmates go on ahead of me into uni while I 'lagged' behind. In the end, I gave private tuition for one year and then decided to re-take my 'A' levels as a private candidate in 2000. That was a tough season of my life. I had to take GP and Chinese all over again in addition to my 3 'A' level subjects. My parents sent me for group tuition classes and also engaged a private tutor for me. Above all, I only had about ten months to revise everything before the exams came. But by the grace of God, my grades improved in the 2nd round and I finally had the chance to study in NUS in the faculty of my choice. And last week, I had my convocation after completing 4 years of study in NUS :)
Even then, people tell me that I should have re-taken my 'A's right after the first round. Others say that I wasted 2 years of my life because while all my peers were already in 3rd year, I was just a 1st-year freshman. However, I never saw it as a waste. God wastes nothing. If I hadn't re-taken my 'A' levels a year later, I wouldn't have met Isabel. If I hadn't entered NUS a year later, I wouldn't have met Nan Yen. Today, I thank God that they are believers, faithfully attending the same church and same cell group as me. In spite of all that I had to go through, God has been good to me. Even if nothing around me seems to be good, I still hold on to the Word of God and say that God is a good God, and He is good all the time. God will work out everything for me! :)
There is nothing good in the devil. There is nothing bad in God.
God is good all the time. All the time God is good.
The above form part of the foundational teachings that I was grounded in during my first year as a believer in 1995. Back then, in at least 2 of the live praise and worship CD recordings by Hosanna Integrity worship leader Don Moen, he would repeatedly emphasise the fact that God is good all the time. I've been greatly blessed as I listened to those albums and used them for my personal praise and worship moments. To date, these teachings are deeply ingrained within me and have helped me in overcoming many of the challenges and down moments of my life.
In case some may think these statements sound rather cliche, they are nonetheless not without Scriptural basis. Psalm 107:1 says Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Psalm 100:5 says For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.
God's truth is His Word. And the Word of God is right and true. It has the power to change our lives. And since the Word clearly says that God is good, there is no doubt or question about that. We do not and should not add anything to it, neither do we subtract anything from it.
I always believe that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). At some point of our lives, however, being human, we may tend to lean on our own understanding and question the goodness of God. When things go wrong, we may start to grumble and murmur and ask 'Why?'. When we do not get what we want, we may start wondering if God is unfair. When answers to our prayers are delayed, we may think that God has forgotten us. But there is one important truth that Pastor Ming has taught us during Bible study. And that is: It is the wrong thing to ask 'Why?'. The right thing to ask should be 'What can I learn from this?'. Asking 'Why?' will only get ourselves stuck in our past and hinder us from moving on in life. Asking 'Why?' will result in further frustration because we do not have all the answers to every question in our minds. Instead, we are to come into the Presence of God again and get a fresh revelation from Him. When we are down and out, we shouldn't give up on God. We need to hear the rhema Word of God speaking to us again. We need to trust God and believe that He is still at work in our lives. We need to learn to give thanks in every circumstance. We do not thank God for the bad things but we thank God for the good things. Yet we are called to thank God in everything.
Life was never smooth-sailing for me. There were many things in life which I wanted and yet did not succeed in getting. For one, I did not manage to get into the secondary school that I wanted so badly. I did not manage to get the kind of 'O' level results that i expected to get. I did not manage to get into the JC of my choice. I did not make it into NUS the first time I took my 'A' levels in 1998, and had to face the disappointment of seeing most of my classmates go on ahead of me into uni while I 'lagged' behind. In the end, I gave private tuition for one year and then decided to re-take my 'A' levels as a private candidate in 2000. That was a tough season of my life. I had to take GP and Chinese all over again in addition to my 3 'A' level subjects. My parents sent me for group tuition classes and also engaged a private tutor for me. Above all, I only had about ten months to revise everything before the exams came. But by the grace of God, my grades improved in the 2nd round and I finally had the chance to study in NUS in the faculty of my choice. And last week, I had my convocation after completing 4 years of study in NUS :)
Even then, people tell me that I should have re-taken my 'A's right after the first round. Others say that I wasted 2 years of my life because while all my peers were already in 3rd year, I was just a 1st-year freshman. However, I never saw it as a waste. God wastes nothing. If I hadn't re-taken my 'A' levels a year later, I wouldn't have met Isabel. If I hadn't entered NUS a year later, I wouldn't have met Nan Yen. Today, I thank God that they are believers, faithfully attending the same church and same cell group as me. In spite of all that I had to go through, God has been good to me. Even if nothing around me seems to be good, I still hold on to the Word of God and say that God is a good God, and He is good all the time. God will work out everything for me! :)
posted by Sabrina at 5:50 AM
3 Comments:
Wow.... sabie, I felt so touched when I read this blog.. And I feel that God knows all the thanksgiving you have in your heart and how in spite of things that happen in your life, you still choose to believe that our God is a good God. :P
It's not easy definitely..when things don't go well, our natural instinct is to question God and ask why does it happen to us? But when blessings come, we just thank God and think that it's only expected that we are blessed. But no, God is good all the time, through the good and the bad, because like you said, God brings us through those times so that certain things can happen in our lives.
I'm inspired! :)
yah yah!!! God wastes nothing! Many of us do have our own stories to tell but it doesnt really matter now isn't it? the past only serves as precious memories and truly, everything happened for a reason. come to think of it, should i not be multiplied from E78, i wouldnt have known all of u!!!Wow!
Thank you Sis Kless and Meiling... :) Am just glad that my sharing can be a blessing to both of you. I'm still learning how to remain positive and give thanks in everything... not easy hee... but with God all things are possible.
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