ICS Daily Devotions
God is a Good God
John 14:11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.
If there is a book entitled “Totally Unforgiving God” then there will be people out there who do not believe God is a good God. We might think that God is the source of our tribulations and problems. If we cannot even convince that God is good starting from His redemption plan, then it will affect our faith in Him and the difficulty and conviction to share the gospel! On the other hand, it is very difficult to hold back the good news from someone if we are excited and convinced about something good!
Importantly, we should be convinced that God wants us to have an abundant life while we are on earth and spend eternity with Him when we depart from this earth. The abundant life includes love, joy and peace including everything that we need in this life. He will provide for us. Eternal life is then being in His presence and staying in a place that He has gone ahead to prepare for us. It is a place where there will be no more tears, no more pain, no more sorrows and sicknesses. It is our eternal home.
Jesus taught the people many things and did lots of miracles among the people. It represents His work on earth. In fact, when John the Baptist’s disciples came to ask Him whether He was the Messiah, this was Jesus’ answer:
Luke 7:20-22 (NKJV) When the men had come to Him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to You, saying, ‘Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?’” And that very hour He cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits; and to many blind He gave sight. Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them”.
Jesus mentioned the work to John’s disciples regarding how blind people received their sight, the lame walked, lepers were cleansed and the poor people had the gospel preached to them! All these are good works done out of grace, love and compassion. It can never be the work of the devil. It is the mark of a good, compassionate and gracious God who created everything good in the beginning. There were no sicknesses, pain, suffering and lack when God created everything in the beginning.
Acts 10:38 (NKJV) How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
Are you convinced that the same Jesus who ministered to the people in the Gospels will also minister to you? Are you convinced that He is truly good? Do you know Him well enough to approach Him by faith? There is huge difference between knowing God and know of God. You should be able to speak about God to your friend just like introducing someone who is close to you and a faithful friend in your life. We know a person when we are his friend and has spent time with him. We will get to know his character, his values, his principles and his ways of doing things. We are also aware of his personality type. We will know whether he is trustworthy, punctual, faithful, loyal and true as a person. This is really knowing the person rather than just knowing the name and the position or accomplishment.
From the Scripture, we know that God is good! He has saved us, He has blessed us. We have experienced Him and His goodness personally. We can relax in Him, being filled with joy and peace, and that in turn should charge us with energy to share the good news with others.
Sermon Series: He Came to Show us the Father
