Ever feel like shouting? The kind of shout that shakes the doubt. The kind that wakes from sleeping slumber. The kind that sends vocal waves through the valley and resonates with hearts who hear.
A simple phrase I shout today with pen and ink. Take a deep breath, God given breath of life. Molded dirt forever changed with the breath of life. Breath fuels our praise. Our words. Our sighs. Our prayers. Without breath we cannot say much can we?
At the top of my lungs, I shout for all to hear today. GOD IS GOOD!
You smile at the simplicity. My heart does as well. Yet I need to shout it loud.
In the past, I walked in a daze so many stumble in. A haze of doubting with the confusion the enemy sent to muddle my heart. I see the same haze hovering over His body in some places and all I can do is shout from the mountain.
Words spoken. Beliefs lodged deep into hearts in the midst of pain. 'God gave me this cancer to teach me a lesson.' 'I guess God wanted this precious little one home in heaven so he took her home.' 'This sickness is a gift.' And my own mutterings of my heart in the past I could add. The list is long.
I shout today. GOD IS GOOD! My eyes opened to the truth. Seriously, open eyes wide to see .... The pain of cancer, the sorrow, the misery, can that be from my Abba? Would he send misery and death? Would the same God who gave His own son that I might have life, force me to open a package of pain with his name attached? Does He delight in tears of sorrow and create them for us to taste? He cannot. God is love. And love never wraps itself as such.
"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." - John 10:10
I look around, slightly winded from shouting over my own life. The icky, the pain, the disease, leave thief fingerprints. Anything that attempts to steal my joy, destroy my health, kill the full life that Jesus gives me ... I recognize the source. Simply put, my Jesus only gives life abundant. If there's any destroying, killing, and stealing I know from which camp it comes.
I have yet to understand it all. The whys, the uncertain pleas, the wonderings. I understand that the Word of God is true, always. I see that my loving God can take the sludge heaped on and somehow, bring His good into the situation. I know the sludge never comes from Him.
Today, I unwrap His gifts and they are always good.
"Don't be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."
-James 1:16-17
