The Kindness of God, by Lydia Floren

When we don’t have prayers answered in the way we would like, particularly the ones that start with,  “Lord give me….”, it may be because God knows what we desire is not good for us. At least not right now.  Yet, when we don’t hear a “yes” we are tempted to believe God is holding out on us, instead of protecting us. Our stubborn hearts say, “Fine, you don’t want to give me this, so I will just get it for myself.”  And we strike out on our own.

Good Gifts

When we follow this pattern, we move away from our growing understanding of God’s goodness.  We forget that God DELIGHTS to give good gifts to His children. HE LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to give good gifts to His children.  He does not try to spoil our fun.  He tries to protect us, give us what we can handle, show us the way.  He wants MORE for us, not less.  He doesn’t want us to settle for the mediocre, when He is planning “fantastic” for just around the corner.  When we choose our way over God’s, we are choosing to settle for less than His best, less than wonderful.

God’s leading is thoughtful, and it is kind.

He wants us to avoid the dangers that lurk beneath the surface of superficial satisfaction.  He wants to keep us from trading true riches for false promises. But in order to receive the blessings He so much wants to give us, we must choose to follow His way, His timing, His wisdom. We must choose to say no to the enslavement of our impulses, and accept the growing freedom that comes from saying yes to His leading.

We must remember and believe that God is good.

Daily we need to turn back as quickly as possible, and remind ourselves again that every step God leads us to take, is one He has chosen because He loves us, and wants the very best for us. When we are off track, the kindest thing God can do for us is to lead us back to following Him.

Repentance is turning away from our own way of doing things, and turning back to reliance on God’s leading.  It is the kindness of God that leads you to repentance. 

What thoughts do you have? Please leave them below!

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