God’s Goodness (Part 1):

The “Other” Good Fruit

Let me just start by saying I am no one special. I can show you in scripture that God doesn’t even have favorites. But the stories I am about to share with you may just cause you to believe otherwise.  Well, that is unless you chose to write off each miracle as coincidence, as some are in the habit of doing.

I too used to inadvertently overlook God’s goodness in my life simply by “if it’s your will” prayers. How could I give God credit for the things He was doing in my life when I had not even asked Him for any of it? Not having had a conversation with God about my needs and hopes made it really easy to overlook His favor on me and credit coincidence instead. I think I was scared to believe Him for the rewards that He promises in scripture. Often times, I didn’t even know what they were. I lived out my “faith” knowing in my head that God was good, but never really believing in my heart that His goodness was for me.

The first time I remember taking a chance to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8), I was reading a familiar scripture. I had always been taught that I should read the Bible as if it were a letter to me, but there were plenty of scriptures, like the one I am about to share, that I would skip over because I didn’t feel good enough. This is what I read that day and decided NOT to skim through it as though I was reading someone else’s letter.

1Corinthians 14:1AMP, “EAGERLY PURSUE and seek to acquire [this] love [make it your aim, your great quest]; and earnestly desire and cultivate the spiritual endowments (gifts), especially that you may prophesy interpret the divine will and purpose in inspired preaching and teaching).”

After a long stammering prayer, I finally got up the nerve to ask God for the gift of prophesy. I mean, it said “ESPECIALLY” desire that one. I even asked God to forgive me in advance if I was being prideful for asking.

The next thing I know, I am seeing this gift at work in my life, and THAT was my first delicious taste of God’s goodness to ME.

I saw the gift at work when I received an email from a friend who was requesting prayer for her rapidly thinning hair. Immediately I felt impressed to give her a scripture, but the one God whispered to me seemed so silly. I swallowed my pride and sent it anyway. A couple years later my friend ran up to me and reminded me of the verse I had given her, “And the very hairs on your head are all numbered.” (Matthew 10:30)

She shared a miraculous testimony with me of praying and standing on that scripture until her hair was completely restored. She said that it had grown in so thick that strangers would even marvel at her thick mane. That’s the goodness of God demonstrated to her AND to ME!

Growing more confident in God’s favor towards me I asked Him one day why I never get those I-just-read-your-mail-kind of words for people. I immediately heard Him respond, “That’s the gift of the Word Of Knowledge, and you haven’t asked me for that yet. Would you like that too?”

Talking to God is so fun! He really cracks me up. Of course I said “yes” and soon after I texted my friend something that the Lord had showed me: and her response, “You just read my mail.” We were both encouraged and saw the goodness of God active in our lives.

There has also been a ton of little things that I’ve almost overlooked if God had not drawn my attention back to those prayers.

My son Caleb had a small mouth as a baby. Now, that didn’t stop him form being loud, but it did mean that when his big boy teeth came in, his teeth would be crowded. The dentist was sure he would need braces.  I prayed and committed it to the Lord every time I thought about it until I forgot. Now that he is nearly 10 years old and he has a perfect straight smile it dawned on me that this is another miracle and evidence that God cares for the details of my family’s lives even when they seem a bit vain.

I can pray in confidence for healing for my family, including their teeth, because I know the scriptures promising God’s healing and I believe them.

I don’t mean to say “if it’s your will” prayers are not heard by God.  A willingness to agree with God for His will in every circumstance is a sweet place to start.  I believe that we can KNOW God’s will and then pray it out with understanding. Then when we see our prayers answered the way we prayed them we get to rejoice in God’s provision. It’s exciting and faith building each time we discover that God really does move mountains for us. It is so fun to get to partner with God to see His will become a reality.

The best way to know God’s will is to know what the Bible says. We learn through great preaching and teaching, but my personal favorite is to learn by reading it and listening to it on CD for myself. Then it’s not filtered through what someone else has experienced. It’s the Word of God in raw goodness speaking to me where I am at each day.

The next challenge occurs when coming across scripture that challenges our thinking.  First, we have to believe what it says regardless of what we may have been taught in Sunday school. Is it possible that everyone makes mistakes? Is it possible that there have been trends in applying the Scriptures that may have been a little off? Maybe those trends have caused us to question the original spiritual truth.

“We know in part and we prophesy in part.” (1 Corinthians 13:9) In other words, we are all still learning and that’s okay.

Even more challenging still is overcoming our own insecurities to recognize our value to God.  I had to swallow what I didn’t recognize as pride in order to humbly ask God to give me a gift that I felt unworthy to receive.

I took a chance and discovered that it gave God pleasure to give me the desires of my heart. (Psalm 37:4)

Knowing scripture serves as a safety measure when hearing God for His will through personal revelation. Some refer to these revelations as God-whispers or a sense in your heart. Whatever you call it, you need to know that you can hear God and know His will. And when you do, you get to agree with God in prayer. Talk about praying powerful prayers that you can have full confidence in seeing answered!

Romans 12:2, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

The way that God changes the way we think is through learning scripture in the raw, and agreeing with what God says. This is what scripture says will teach us to know God’s will, and it is a good and pleasing and perfect will.

I hope you are encouraged today to go after God’s goodness!

Stop back by to hear more of my personal stories of God’s goodness and the things He is showing my husband and I about Spiritual Farming in God’s Goodness (Part 2).