God is good. The
devil is bad.
It may seem like a fairly basic and cliché’ thing to
say. However, this is a key concept for
us to grasp in our faith! I purposely
put a period after each of these statements.
God is good, period! End of
story! The devil is bad, period! End of story!
No ifs, ands, or buts about it! Everything
that comes from The Lord is good!
Listen, life happens and bad things happen to all
believers. God prepares us for this in
His Word.
“In the world you will have troubles.
But take heart! I have overcome
the world.” John 16:33
People get sick, loved ones die, people lose their jobs, and
unexpected expenses leave us in a bind.
Kids rebel, marriages experience difficult times, people are mean, life
is unfair! There are many
disappointments, things don’t go as planned, and often times we find ourselves
battling the same thing over and over and over!
These are just a few examples of the “troubles” that God refers to in
His Word. When these troubles come, we
shouldn’t be surprised. We live in a
fallen world where the enemy has come to kill, steal, and destroy us. We know he’s coming after us, but Jesus tells
us to take heart and be at peace, because He has overcome the world! In other words, He’s saying, “Chill out! Take a deep breath. I have already worked this out and given you
victory over this problem. Just walk in
obedience to My Word, let the Holy Spirit be your guide, and trust Me!” Yet, despite His warnings, we somehow are
knocked off our feet and we allow these troubles to distort our perception of
God and somewhere along our journey, our formula gets distorted!
God = Good --> God = Mostly Good (but sometimes unfair and
harsh)
Devil = Bad --> Devil = Still Bad
Our faith always starts out so strong when troubles
come. We pray, we read the Word, we believe,
we stand firm! Our faith sustains
us! However, as time goes on, we grow
weary or oftentimes, we just don’t understand!
In an effort to make sense of life’s circumstances, we begin to question
God’s nature. When we don’t see the
answers to our prayers right away or possibly don’t see the answer at all that we
have desperately prayed for, we begin to accept the lies that the enemy is feeding
us…all in an effort to make sense of what has happened in our lives or in the
lives of others! We begin to convince ourselves that this must all be in God's plan, God must need me to go through this so I can accomplish His will, or God needed to get my attention so He had to knock me off my feet. Meanwhile, Satan is just
giddy as he craftily schemes to deceive believers and cause them to question
God’s goodness. When we begin to
question God’s goodness, we begin to worry and let guilt and fear reside in our heart and
mind. Hello…Fear paralyzes faith! Satan knows when our faith is paralyzed, he has
us right where he wants us because we are absolutely ineffective and get stuck
in our troubles!
When Jesus died on the cross, He not only died for our sins,
but His death redeemed us from the curse!
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for
us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.’” Galatians 3:13
Have you ever taken the time to read the list of curses for
disobedience under the old law? Here is a
short list according to Deuteronomy 28:15-67!
-
You will be cursed everywhere you go. (vs. 16)
-
The means in which you gather wealth/blessings
will be cursed! (vs. 17)
-
Your womb will be cursed. (vs. 18)
-
Your food will be cursed. (vs. 18)
-
You will be confused. (vs. 20)
-
You will fail at everything you try. (vs. 20)
-
You will be plagued with diseases, sickness,
fever, and inflammation. (vs. 21-22)
-
You will die from sickness, disease, heat, and
drought. (vs. 22)
-
You will be defeated before all of your enemies.
(vs. 25)
-
You will be plagued with boils, tumors, sores,
and the itch, all which cannot be cured. (vs. 27)
-
You will be afflicted with madness, blindness,
and confusion. (vs. 28)
-
You will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to
rescue you. (vs. 29)
-
Your wife will be taken and raped. (vs. 30)
-
You will lose your home, land, and food. (vs.
30)
-
Your children will be given away. (vs. 31)
-
You will hunger and thirst, be naked and in
poverty. (vs. 48)
-
You will have prolonged disasters and severe and
lingering illnesses. (vs. 59)
-
You will experience every kind of sickness and
disaster not recorded. (vs. 61)
-
You will be given an anxious mind, eyes weary
and longing, and a despairing heart. (vs. 65)
-
You will live in constant suspense, filled with
dread both day and night. (vs. 66)
This isn’t even the full list of curses under the old law, but because of Jesus, WE HAVE BEEN REDEEMED FROM THEM ALL!!! Praise the Lord!!!
Jesus became the curse for us when He hung there on the
cross! Listen, folks! God sent His one and ONLY Son, Jesus Christ,
to die on the cross because He LOVED us!!!
This past week, I was teaching a Bible lesson to my girls about the
crucifixion of Jesus. As I read the
story to my girls and described to them what happened to Jesus on the cross,
there came a moment where I could no longer continue. I began to sob uncontrollably and both of my
girls looked at me with concern. My
sweet Myka at one point even said, “It’s okay mom, you don’t have to keep
reading.” Bless her sweet heart, she
hates to see people cry. Once I composed
myself enough to continue, I explained to them that these weren’t sad tears,
but on the contrary, they were happy tears.
I explained to them that I was crying because this story reminds me of
just HOW good our God is! My mind can’t
seem to comprehend why God would send His one and only Son to die a criminal’s
death on the cross for MY sins...MY SINS!
But, even more, my mind can’t comprehend how Jesus chose to walk in
obedience to His Father’s will when at any moment, He could have struck those
men dead and healed Himself! But Jesus…
Jesus loved and trusted His Father SO much that He obeyed,
even though He didn’t understand. At one point, moments before His last breath,
He cried out to His Father in Heaven, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken
Me?” Do you know why He felt forsaken by
His Father?
For three hours, darkness filled the sky in the middle of
the day and the ground shook. During
those three hours before Jesus died, all the things that you have done wrong
and all the things that I have done wrong, all of our sins, were put on
Jesus. God the Father in Heaven looked
at God the Son on Calvary’s cross and saw our sins on Him. God the Father HATES sin; He cannot even look
at sin; and He poured out His anger and wrath upon Jesus (His own son) for
three hours. Jesus took our eternal punishment
for our sins when He was hanging there on the cross and He experienced hell's fury. It was so horrible that I think God didn’t
even want the people to see how horrible it was, so He draped the sky in
blackness during those three hours.
During those three hours, he poured out his wrath on Jesus because of my
sin and because of your sins. Jesus became
the curse that I deserved and that is what made him unrecognizable…not the
beating, but the sin and curse that was put upon Him! That's what my Jesus did for me!
I am redeemed of the curse because of my Jesus!
Because of Jesus, I no longer have to suffer the curses of
the old law! When he took the curse upon
Himself, He in essence took it from me! So
read back through that list of curses again.
Once you ask Jesus into your heart and repent of your sins, you have
been delivered from all of it…sickness, disease, tumors, confusion, madness,
oppression, poverty, failure, defeat, etc.!
That doesn’t mean Satan won’t still try to put it on you! But it’s not ours to keep! We have been redeemed of the curse! It’s already been done and there is nothing
you can do to change that, nor is there anything more that Jesus can do to
change that! He already redeemed us! We just have to believe that and operate our
lives as if it’s so...even when our circumstances appear to contradict that
truth! Don’t ever give the enemy the
satisfaction of making our circumstances bigger than what Jesus did on the
cross! It’s covered by the blood of The
Lamb! Jesus took it upon Himself so that
we didn’t have to! Now, that’s reason to
praise Him!
I want to encourage you today. Whether you are battling an illness, have
been given a bad report, are struggling with severe anxiety, having marital
problems, or struggling financially…God is NOT trying to teach you a
lesson!!! Many of our troubles here on
Earth are often brought on by our own foolishness, but more than not, our
troubles are a direct attack from Satan himself! God has nothing to do with it so stop giving
God credit for Satan’s attacks! Remember…God is good! He doesn’t need to use bad things to complete
His work in us! Now, oftentimes, when we
face hard times, it has a way to draw us closer to God and get us back on
track. I believe that is one reason
believers begin to believe that God allows those bad things to happen to us,
but that is just not His nature! His
nature is good! That’s why in His Word
He tells us that “He works all things for good!”
When Satan attacks us, God is able to take the very thing that Satan
meant to destroy us, and God can work it for His good! That’s because He is a loving God who sent
His precious Son to redeem us! Too many
of us are holding onto our sufferings, claiming that it’s God’s Will for us and
a testing period. Let me encourage you
today because Jesus already proved to Satan that he’s defeated and we don’t
have to hold onto those sufferings any longer!
We have been redeemed! Begin
praising The Lord for His goodness!
Begin thanking Him that you have been redeemed from sickness, poverty,
anxiety, and failure! God is good! He is faithful! And He loves you! Whatever you are going through today,
remember this truth today…
GOD IS GOOD!!!
