{"id":330,"date":"2014-07-09T23:16:45","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T04:16:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/?p=330"},"modified":"2019-05-17T13:52:56","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T18:52:56","slug":"kindness-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2014\/07\/09\/kindness-god\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kindness of God,  by Lydia Floren"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Photo by sebagee\" src=\"http:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/b40e71b204ae12dc5fd46a2b_640_ocean-pray.jpg\" alt=\"ocean pray photo\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-402\" src=\"http:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/romans-2-4.jpg\" alt=\"romans 2 4\" width=\"600\" height=\"76\" srcset=\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/romans-2-4.jpg 600w, https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/romans-2-4-300x38.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/>When we don\u2019t have prayers answered in the way we would like, particularly the ones that start with, \u00a0\u201cLord give me\u2026.\u201d, it may be because God knows what we desire is not good for us. At least not right now.\u00a0 Yet, when we don\u2019t hear a \u201cyes\u201d we are tempted to believe God is holding out on us, instead of protecting us.\u00a0Our stubborn hearts say, \u201cFine, you don\u2019t want to give me this, so I will just get it for myself.\u201d\u00a0 And we strike out on our own.<\/p>\n<h3>Good Gifts<\/h3>\n<p>When we follow this pattern, we move away from our growing understanding of God\u2019s goodness.\u00a0 We forget that God DELIGHTS to <a title=\"The Difficulty of Blessings\" href=\"http:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2014\/07\/09\/difficulty-blessings\/\">give good gifts <\/a>to His children. HE LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to give good gifts to His children.\u00a0 He does not try to spoil our fun.\u00a0 He tries to protect us, give us what we can handle, show us the way.\u00a0 He wants MORE for us, not less.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t want us to settle for the mediocre, when He is planning \u201cfantastic\u201d for just around the corner.\u00a0 When we choose our way over God\u2019s, we are choosing to settle for less than His best, less than wonderful.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/kindnessrepentance-lg.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-334\" src=\"http:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/kindnessrepentance-lg.jpg\" alt=\"the kindness of God leads us to repentance\" width=\"750\" height=\"750\" srcset=\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/kindnessrepentance-lg.jpg 750w, https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/kindnessrepentance-lg-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/kindnessrepentance-lg-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>God\u2019s leading is thoughtful, and it is kind.<\/h3>\n<p>He wants us to avoid the dangers that lurk beneath the surface of superficial satisfaction.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n<p>We must remember and believe that God is good.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Repentance is turning away from <a title=\"Breathing In\" href=\"http:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2014\/02\/23\/breathing-in\/\">our own way <\/a>of doing things, and turning back to reliance on God\u2019s leading.\u00a0 It is <em>the kindness of God that leads you to repentance.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/john-1-51.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-401\" src=\"http:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/john-1-51.jpg\" alt=\"john 1 5\" width=\"600\" height=\"59\" srcset=\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/john-1-51.jpg 600w, https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/john-1-51-300x29.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/2-cor-7-101.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-400\" src=\"http:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/2-cor-7-101.jpg\" alt=\"2 cor 7 10\" width=\"600\" height=\"76\" srcset=\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/2-cor-7-101.jpg 600w, https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/2-cor-7-101-300x38.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>What thoughts do you have? Please leave them below!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><small><a style=\"text-decoration: none;\" title=\"Image inserted by the WP Inject WordPress plugin\" href=\"http:\/\/wpinject.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Photo<\/a> by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/19126737@N04\/6287240997\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">honorbound<\/a> <a title=\"Attribution-NoDerivs License\" href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/2.0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-inject\/images\/cc.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When we don\u2019t have prayers answered in the way we would like, particularly the ones that start with, \u00a0\u201cLord give me\u2026.\u201d, it may be because God knows what we desire is not good for us. At least not right now.\u00a0 Yet, when we don\u2019t hear a \u201cyes\u201d we are tempted to believe God is holding [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[466],"tags":[491,17],"class_list":["post-330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finding-gods-love","tag-attributes-of-god","tag-reminders"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Kindness of God - Belovedlove<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When we don\u2019t have prayers answered in the way we would like, particularly the ones that start with \u201cLord give me\u2026.\u201d it may be because God knows what we\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/belovedlove.org\/reflections\/2014\/07\/09\/kindness-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Kindness of God - 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