I am a Grace Focused Optimist.

I live with The Christian Attitude toward life.

The Christian Attitude toward life is “My life is a grace G.O.O.D.” Meaning, my life is a God Orchestrated Opportunity for Development, Disposition, and Doxology.

I rest in, and am refreshed and replenished by, the assurance that every day, all day long, GOD is always the one dealing with me. His DNA is on everything that comes my way, and this raises for many the kind of tough to answer questions a six year old can ask on a regular basis.

But dealing with these questions is as risky as a politician taking a tough stance in disagreement with his constituency.

Let me explain.

[ctt template=”2″ link=”JHYqr” via=”yes” ]I rest in, and am refreshed and replenished by, the assurance that every day, all day long, GOD is always the one dealing with me. @gfoministries[/ctt]

The Questions

I’ve found three questions Sumo wrestler big, pinning me, taking away my breath.

1. How can God control the free actions of people without turning them into pawns on his chessboard?

2. How can God be good and let unspeakably evil things happen without being guilty of High Crimes and Misdemeanors?

3. (and most personal of all) How can God be dealing with us in love through the bad things we face?

Those are tough, hard-hitting questions.

The Risks

Some GFO blog readers may feel a discussion like this is no more relevant to their everyday living than glasses are to someone with 20/20 vision.

Or be put off because this is about the D word—doctrine—and doctrine’s supposed to be more harmful to Christian living than cigarettes to physical health.

Is this you?

If it is, I ask you from the bottom of my heart not to dismiss this and the following posts dealing with this issue. Don’t hang up on them as if they’re the blogging equivalent of an obscene phone call.

Because what we’re thinking about now’s more relevant to us as believers than who’s elected as the next President of the United States or what happens to the economy—together!

Think I’m exaggerating?

Just trying to keep you mainlining my blog?

Well, I DO want you hooked on my blog. Frankly, I want you visiting it as often as just married couples kiss. And enjoying it that much. (Well, that may be a stretch…)

But when I say that the questions about how God can be the One dealing with us in love, through the free and bad actions of people and the hard knocks of life, are questions we’ve got to come to terms with— I’m talking about issues as important to us as a pacemaker to a heart patient, insulin to a diabetic, and police/fire departments to a community.

We simply can’t and won’t live God’s way without answers to these questions about how he’s the One dealing with us when bad people and bad things invade our lives.

Until you KNOW—know in the beyond a shadow of a doubt assurance that my wife knows I love her and my children know I love them, and vice versa—until you KNOW that God’s the One dealing with you, in love, even in those times that seem more unloving than Cain’s killing of Abel. . .

Until you KNOW this you won’t exalt God and enjoy him the way he wants you to as a Grace Focused Optimist.

The “G” in “My life is a grace G.O.O.D.” really is this important.

[ctt template=”2″ link=”u0K_9″ via=”yes” ]Until you know God’s always the one dealing with you, you won’t exalt and enjoy him the way he wants you to as a Grace Focused Optimist. @gfoministries[/ctt]

The Reasons

So, we need to spend time with this. Because of that, I ask you to do something.

I ask you to read the next few posts carefully and prayerfully.

Here’s a GPS of where we’re headed:

I’m going to share with you five reasons why I believe God—our loving Heavenly Father—is always the One dealing with us, no matter what’s going on in our lives.

These reasons are: authority, expectancy, humility, therapy, and, Christianity.

By authority I mean the fact that as Christians we are God’s children and like a little child, we’re to take his word at face value. He assures us in the Bible, “Child, you’re always in my hands.”

By expectancy I mean the fact that as Christians we’re to expect God to be GOD, a Being so BIG he does things beyond our pay grade. Things like govern our lives lovingly, through people, and pain. Like the Bible says, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”

By humility I mean the fact that as Christians we should never show hospitality to the notion that because we can’t figure out how God can do something he therefore can’t do it. Just because I can’t see how God can be good yet allow evil doesn’t mean he can’t.

By therapy I mean that the ONE truth by which the Bible “medicates” us in our heartaches is the truth that our loving Heavenly Father is always the One dealing with us. That’s Romans 8:28.

By Christianity I mean the fact that we’re Jesus followers and the Jesus we follow himself preached and practiced the truth that his loving Father—Who, I remind you, through Jesus is OUR loving Father, too—was always the One dealing with him. Following him means building our lives on the foundational fact that this same Father is the One always dealing with us.

These truths aren’t New Orleans Mardi Gras trinkets. They’re Fort Knox gold valuable!

Lord willing, we’ll look closely at each of them over the next few posts. Because, the heart of being a Grace Focused Optimist is the truth that “My life is a grace G.O.O.D.”

My life is a GOD orchestrated opportunity for development, disposition, and doxology.

G is for GOD.


One Response to 5 Reasons Why a Grace Focused Optimist Like Me Believes God is Always the One Dealing with Him
  1. […] I said there are five reasons why I believe this: authority, expectancy, humility, therapy, and Christianity. But before talking about the […]


[top]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *