God is Good...All the time

We've all heard the little ditty "God is Good....All the time and All the time...God is Good. It seems like this is said all the time and after awhile it just becomes a habit. We tend to do it just because the Pastor or whoever is up front gets it started. There are times I think here we go again. Another thing I catch myself rolling my eyes at is when I hear the song leader give the page for the prayer song before the pastoral prayer. At our church the one that is sung most frequently is God is so Good. After awhile we begin to sing this song without even thinking about it because we "do it all the time."



Well, today on my way home from work both these things came to me. When I went to work this morning it was snowing lightly. As the morning progressed, the snow kept coming. When I came out of work to go home (I'm still on 1/2 days from surgery) I had to clean off several inches of snow that had fallen throughout the morning. I hate to drive in bad weather, but drove home. It took me about 30 minutes to get from Bryan to Montpelier. At any rate when I hit the city limits I just said out loud "Thank you Lord." After I said it I felt like I had to clarify what I said. Sometimes we say "Thank you Lord." without really thinking. I said I really do mean thank you. Then tears came because I really did mean it. I have been driving back and forth to Bryan to work for approximately 19 years and not once have I hit a deer, which is a feat in itself, I have never been in an accident due to my error or someone elses and I have never slid off the road due to ice or snow. I take the same route every day and at times I've come close. If I had been a minute sooner or a few minutes later, I could have been in a couple very serious accidents, but I have always missed them. So as I thanked God the little ditty came to my mind. God is good....all the time and all the time...God is good. God is so good. He protects us when we are not even aware of it. I think we sometimes forget how good God is because we tend to get into a routine. Sometimes we need to stop saying things or stop singing things just for the sake of doing it and take time to look at the words and to really think about our lives and see the things that God does for us so we can say it with conviction and not just because.

Is God's Word Relevant For Us Today?

I have had people ask me this question and I am sure I have asked this question at times. What answer do we give? Any "good" Christian would answer yes. It is easy to say yes. It is sometimes harder to give the questioner examples right off the top of your head. Well, last night at our women's Bible study I was able to give a definite example of just how relevant God's Word is in our day to day lives.

Earlier in the day I had received an email from a family member and she wrote to me about a long standing issue in our family. This issue has gone on for close to 10 years or so. In the past it has been easy to get into a full blown "discussion" regarding this issue. She made some comments that I could have easily responded to, but decided and told her I would only respond the the questions that were pertinent to me and would not respond to the other issue she brought up. I told her that I would pray as I have been doing that God would work out a miracle in the situations that she had mentioned.

Well, I had studied my lesson for the Bible study a week ago, but as we went over it last night, one of the verses stood out to me and was very relevant for this particular situation. the verse was 2 Timothy 2:23, "Don't have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels." It is very easy to get caught up in arguments. Of course both parties are sure they are right, but is it really that important. Is being right worth strained relationships? I must say that I believe that if I were completely honest most arguments would fall under "foolish and stupid."

Is God's Word relevant to us today? I believe if we just read God's Word for the sake of reading it (it's the right thing to do), we may feel like we really didn't get anything out of the reading. However, if we pray for God's guidance and read His Word intentionally, truly wanting to see what God has for us regarding how to really live a Holy life, we will find His Word to be very relevant for us today.