The Christian Attitude toward life is, “Through Jesus, my life is a grace G.O.O.D.” In our 8-day Bible Study on Handling Life with The Christian Attitude, we said the acronym meant a “God Orchestrated Opportunity for development, disposition, and doxology.”
It’s time to explore the acronym.
We start with the “G.” It stands for the truth that God is always the one dealing with us.
God’s Always the One dealing with Us
“For from him and through him and unto him are all things” (Romans 11:36).
This verse stresses that no matter what we face in life, God’s always the one dealing with us.
Sometimes God deals with us directly. Sometimes, indirectly. But either way, we need to rest in the fact he’s always the one dealing with us.
[ctt template=”2″ link=”Nt1CU” via=”no” ]Sometimes God deals with us directly. Sometimes, indirectly. But either way we need to rest in the fact he’s always the one dealing with us.[/ctt]
God Deals with us Directly
1. I feel a need to pray. This is the Holy Spirit urging me to “cry, Abba, Father” (Galatians 4:6).
2. I face temptation. I cry to God for his help so I can say to my temptation what Joseph said to his: “How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9)— and I’m enabled to resist the temptation. This is the Lord helping me as directly as Jesus extending his Coast Guard hand and rescuing Peter from sinking when unbelief capsized him.
3. I’m discouraged. My spirits drooping like tree limbs burdened with heavy snow. Suddenly a sunshine verse comes to mind, melts the snow, cheers me. It’s the Great Physician making a house call.
Those are just a few examples of how God often deals with us in direct ways.
God deals with us Indirectly
By this, I mean he deals with us through other people and things.
I give you four ways, backed with Biblical truth, of how he deals with us behind the scenes, influencing us as immediately as a writer does the characters in his novel.
1. God deals with us through people
– In 1 Samuel, he uses Abigail to keep David from killing her foolish husband Nabal (1 Samuel 25:32-34)
– In Acts, he uses Barnabas to persuade the early church that the wolf named Saul of Tarsus is now a sheep in the Good Shepherd’s pasture (Acts 9:27-28)
– Later in Acts he uses the prayers of God’s people to break Peter out of Herod’s jail (Acts 12:6-11)
2. God’s the one dealing with us through nature
– In Joshua, God makes the sun stand at attention in the sky, unmoving as a Westminster Palace Guard, so Joshua can win a battle (Joshua 10:12-14)
– In Job, a hurricane brought disaster to Job’s children (Job 1:18-21)
– In Proverbs, we see that God’s the one dealing with us through what we call chance, like the number that comes up on roulette dice at the Beau Rivage Casino (Proverbs 16:33). (Probably why I’ll never win any lottery!)
3. God’s even the one dealing with us when people wrong us
– In Genesis, Joseph’s brothers’ sins aim to turn his dreams into a nightmare but they’re really God working to make the dreams come true.
– The best example of all time: Satan and evil people nail the Son of God to a cross to put to death his claim to be the Savior and their actions are nothing less than God himself working to save everyone who believes in Jesus: He that spared not his own Son but offered him up for us all (Romans 8:32). He, not they!!!!
God was the one dealing with us at Calvary.
God Deals with us Daily
Christian, do you understand that this is as true for you as it is for the people in the Bible?
The Bible points to anything and everything touching your life and says to you, “Christian, look behind this person, this thing, this event and BELIEVE that God’s the one dealing with you.
BELIEVE that God is the one dealing with you when:
– the contract on your dream house is accepted or rejected
– the girl of your dreams says, “Yes,”—or the boyfriend you love says “goodbye”
– the medical test comes back positive . . . or negative . . .
BELIEVE that God’s the one dealing with you in these things—and EVERYTHING else that you experience.
EVERYTHING!
Neither Satan, people (good or bad), luck, fate, the moon and stars, or even our own foolish fickleness and faithlessness ultimately deal a single card we play.
Whether we hold Aces and Eights or a Royal Flush, each comes from God’s deck. Meaning each comes saying to us what Jesus said to his disciples, “It is I; Be not afraid” (John 6:20).
[ctt template=”2″ link=”Vdp5w” via=”no” ]The Bible points to everything touching your life and says to you, “Christian, look behind this and BELIEVE God’s the one dealing with you.”[/ctt]
The Problem and the Solution
Over the next few weeks, we’ll look at the problems this truth raises and the Person who makes this truth so comforting.
The problem is the question, “How can a loving God rule the free actions of people and, at the same time, let people he loves go through so much bad stuff?”
I’ll try to give you the Bible’s answer to this question.
The person who is the God who is always dealing with us is what makes this truth so comforting. Who is this Person? Our Father in Jesus.
But for now, revel in this truth that the God who is always dealing with us is the Father who loves us the way he loves Jesus (Jesus himself tells us this in John 17:23!).
This is why no matter what’s happening to you, your life’s a grace G.O.O.D. My brother, my sister: You can look at whatever’s happening to you at this moment and say to it what Jesus says to Pilate: “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above.” (John 18:12.)
Through Jesus, your life is a grace G.O.O.D.
That’s because G is for the fact that God is always the one dealing with you.