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There is Goodness ...

Wednesday, April 30, 2014. There are strong promises made in both in the Old and the New Testament. God promises his help, his salvation, his guidance and his continuing love, for every day of our life.

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God's struggle with our heart …

But God made it also clear, that living with him has consequences. He is a holy God, and he wants us to be holy. He is a just God, and he wants us to be just. He is a God full of trust and love and truth, and lies cannot remain in his presence. So it is no wonder that we get into trouble if we try to keep problematic behaviour, difficult thoughts and behavioural patterns, while at the same time we try to get closer to the Lord.

There is a struggle of our heart with the truth and freedom of the eternal Lord. The psalms talk about this struggle. Let us listen for example to Psalm 81:

6 “I relieved your shoulder of the burden; your hands were freed from the basket. 7 In distress you called, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. 8 Hear, O my people, while I admonish you! O Israel, if you would but listen to me! 9 There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god. 10 I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. 11 “But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me. 12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels. 13 Oh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! 14 I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes. 15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him, and their fate would last forever. 16 But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

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Some steps are on our side …

There are steps which we have to do. It is not just God, who is a little late with his help and his guidance. It is us who are late, going the steps we have to go. We cannot just say “we believe”, but not change. We cannot just pretend to be people of the Lord, but not change our heart, our actions, our mind, our emotions. We at least have to listen to him, and to do what he tells us.

The New Testament communicates the message of “salvation by faith alone”. It is not that what we do could help us to be saved. But at the same time, we cannot live with the Lord and not be changed by his grace! There is some tension in this, also reflected in the letters of James and Paul. It is all grace, but it is not without our own decisions and our words and our actions.

The promises which we hear in this Psalm are fantastic. Israel is promised the fines wheat; and good honey. God cares for his people. He wants to help. He wants to do good, very good things indeed! These words can be a real encouragement. There is goodness left in the world, even if some people around you try to work against you and constrain you. God wants to open a wide space for your life! Halleluja. (Roland Potthast) ... more texts

jn_en_2014_04_30.txt · Last modified: 2017/06/18 16:48 by 127.0.0.1