He Only Sends Good

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that rejects fear in any form. Fear is seen as a spiritual force that Satan uses to keep people down, and his weapon is words. Instead, the focus is on championing faith as allegiance to God and accepting the unvarnished truth of His word. It is emphasized that God does not send bad things to teach or test us, but rather, He only sends good things. The Bible is used to support the belief that God is good, truthful, and does not want any negativity or darkness in our lives. It is emphasized that sickness, mental illness, and all negative experiences are a result of sin and the fallen nature of the world, not God's doing. God can use all things for good and His glory, but the ultimate goal is for everyone to come to repentance and be free from sin and its consequences. The importance of building and strengthening faith is highlighted, as well as the power of the Word of God Welcome to Fear No Fear. Grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit embrace you today. This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture. We reject fear in any and all forms. Fear is a spiritual force, the currency of darkness and ignorance. It's what we inherited when Adam gave up his faith and Satan uses it to keep people down. His only weapon is words. If he can get you believing or looking at words of fear, he's got you. Instead, we champion faith as an allegiance to God, as a belief and trust and loyalty to the Lord God Almighty. We accept the evidence of His word as unvarnished truth, as is, just as it's written. We get close to His perfect love through the word, and perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4.18 All scripture is taken from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Visit eBible.org Revelation 2.10 Don't be afraid of the things which you were about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have oppression for ten days. Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life. God doesn't send bad things to you to teach you a lesson. God does not send bad things to you to test you. God doesn't make you sick, give you disease, or cause you to lose anything in your life. He doesn't allow bad times, troubles, stress, sickness, or anything else to come upon you, to grow you, or stretch you, or develop you, or teach you. He doesn't take loved ones because He wanted them in heaven more than you wanted them on earth. He doesn't kill children to spare them from something worse later on. He does none of these things that we, as the church, have been spewing on each other for decades, if not centuries. And I am not speaking as someone who has not experienced loss, or trauma, or bad circumstances. I am telling you a factual, scriptural truth that God never, ever, ever sends anything bad. James 1, 16-18 says, Don't be deceived, my beloved brothers and sisters. Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation nor turning shadow. Of His own will He gave birth to us, by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures. Look at today's verse. The devil is about to test you. Bad comes from the enemy, from the nature of sin. Good comes from God, and God only sends good. He is truthful. All good, all. All perfect, all. No variation, no turning shadow. All good, all. But we don't make doctrine from a single verse. The Bible is God-breathed, and all Scripture meshes. Malachi 3, 6 says that He is the Lord that doesn't change. Daniel 2, 22 says the light dwells in Him. John 3, 27, John answered, A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. Numbers 23, 19 says God doesn't lie. And makes good on His word. Romans 6, 23 says the gift of God is life through Jesus. 1 John 1, 5 says God is light and has no darkness in Him. Matthew 7, 11 says the Father knows how to give good gifts. Psalm 85, 12 says the Lord gives that which is good. See a trend yet? We could go on and on and on. God is good. He is truth. He gives good things. He cannot lie. He makes good on His words and promises, and He is full of light. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that He tests us with sickness. Sickness is of the curse, disease, fear, all of fear's babies, anxiety, depression, worry, etc. All mental illness. All everything that isn't good and laid down by the Lord as righteousness. Check out the law. See anything that isn't a grooming set them apart from others visibly law? If it's covered by a loving God before everything else, and having Him as God only, or by loving our neighbors as ourselves, then it's a righteous law that we'll keep by abiding in Jesus and striving to be like Him. Is it a negative thing you see? It's a price of sin. Jesus died to eliminate sin. Jesus paid the price. It's done. Gone. Over. We don't have to pay that price. We don't have to walk in that bondage or suffer that curse, any part of that curse, ever. The curse is a terrible thing. Sin and everything it touches is negative. God does not want any of it on us. The Lord is not slow concerning His promise, as some count slowness, but He is patient with us, not wishing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3.9 Part of coming to repentance is becoming a new creature, a new creature with no sin, a new creature with no curse. Yahweh God, in His sovereign prerogative, gave humanity free will. Genesis 2.16-17 and Romans 10.9-10 That means we must all choose what we are going to do. Obey the Lord or not. Because there is sin contaminating creation, and because there are humans that choose to disobey the Lord, there are a lot of negatives in this world. None of it is from God, but God can use all of it. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God and for those who were called according to His purpose. Romans 8.28, very well-known verse. God turns everything to His glory, one way or another. For God has bound all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways, past tracing out! For who has known the mind of God? Or who has been His counselor? Or who has first given to Him, and it will be repaid to Him again? For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. Romans 11.32-36 God doesn't bring anything bad onto us. God doesn't allow anything bad to come on or against us. Bad is because creation is fallen. Bad is because we are attacked of the devil who wants to make us hurt, sick, defeated and dead. John 10.10 God uses all of it. He turns things to His purpose. Everything bad gives us the opportunity to stand on a promise of God. To believe something He has said about us and our circumstances. If we are the faithful of God, if we are seeking Him, if we are obedient to Him, if we are aligned with His will and His word, then we are overcomers. Then we are heirs to the promises and can stand on them and trust them. And by submitting to the Lord, let Him work in our lives and turn things to good. God tells us to build and strengthen our faith because it takes faith to stand. We stand for as long as we need to prove that our trust is in the Lord. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed toward us. Romans 8.18 Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Withstand him steadfast in your faith, knowing that your brothers who are in the world are undergoing the same sufferings. But may the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 1 Peter 5.8-10 Are you sick? God wants you well. Are you suffering from a mental illness of any kind? God wants you well. Do you have a condition that you're dealing with, mental diagnosis or physical? God wants you whole and healthy. Do you have cancer? God wants you whole and healthy. Do you have allergies? God wants you whole and healthy. Jesus is the anointed one. He came and took on Himself all your sickness, disease, and sin, every wrong thought, every bad act, every bit of strife, jealousy, greed, sexual immorality, lie, bitterness, and every other bad thing, every mental condition from ADHD to anxiety to postpartum depression. He took it all. He died because of it. He paid for it. His blood washed it away. It's gone. It doesn't exist. You don't have to have it anymore. Now receive the healing. Receive the washing away of all the bad by God's own decree. Genesis 126, spirits of any kind, including him, are illegal on earth and have no authority unless they are working through a human being because humans have dominion and they get to say who and what works through them to them here on earth. That is free will. Everything else is run by God. We run free will. Oh, but I tried. Oh, but what if it doesn't work? Oh, but I don't believe that, etc., etc. Don't fear. Don't worry. And don't stress. The Lord God Almighty is merciful and understanding and patient and loving. He uses everything, remember? So if you have something and you can't or you won't believe that the cross heals you of it, God can use it for good in his glory. That's how things that the world says are negatives. God can turn into the thing that's a huge witness. Now this isn't a look on the silver lining bunch of junk. This is mindful seeking of the Holy Spirit to be instructed, comforted, counseled, and guided in all things. We are ever moving in greater and greater sanctification. It's a journey. God's best is 100% whole, healthy, instantaneous healing, physical, spiritual, emotional, mental, financial, everything full. But God meets us where we are. God deals with us at our faith level while also challenging us to grow. It is a process, but it is a process determined by our seeking of the Lord and our journey through the word, reading it, thinking on it, dwelling in it, and building up our faith through it. The more word you have in you on a day-to-day basis, the more the Lord can reveal to you. The more you have revealed to you, the greater steps you can take in his process of sanctification. Read the word. Get the verses about deliverance or healing or whatever is your problem into your mind. Meditate on them. Pray on them. Praise them. Get them so down deep inside yourself that they are a part of you until you have believed them. Past tense. They're so in there, you don't even need to believe anymore because you know. Believing implies hope, that earnest expectation, which is good. That's what we need. But knowing implies certainty. So it's an eager expectation in the sense that you are certain it will arrive. Once you are certain, receive the healing and deliverance that you know is yours because the word promised it. If you aren't there yet, stay in the word. There's nothing bad there. God has no darkness. He cannot lie. He backs up his word and makes good on it. He is truth. He knows how to give good gifts. He gives. Now you receive. Receive it from your Father in heaven. Be whole. Nothing missing. Nothing broken. Nothing you have to manage or live with. God loves you wherever you are. There is no judgment or condemnation. Only love and peace and mercy. It is freeing to know that we are loved no matter what, helped no matter what, guided no matter what, companioned with no matter what. Be free. Be free indeed. If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. John 8, 36. Receive it today. Our daily affirmation of God's love is 1 Corinthians 10, 11-14. The kingdom of God is built on faith. It is the air we breathe there. Nothing is done without faith. Romans 14, 23. All things, thoughts, actions, and imaginings are saturated with it. Without faith, there is no way to please God. Hebrews 11, 6. We are given the scriptures not only for instruction but also for example. We can read histories of people who walked with God and people who walked away from God. There is an example for us, a testimony to us, to assist us in our stance and our standing. We are to see the fires and troubles of this world. We are to see the glory and mercy of the Lord. We are to see the glory to come. We are to stand. Temptations will come because our adversary seeks our life and is here to test our faith to see if he can make us fall. But if we are tempted, we are tempted according to that which always tempts humanity. The devil has no new tricks. He cannot create anything. And for everything brought against us, the word shows us a way to defeat, avoid, and stand above the attack. If we seek the Lord and turn away from all that would interfere with that seeking, we will be victorious. We will endure. We will find the circumstances around us changing to our advantage in whatever form that takes. God loves us too much to want us to fail. God loves us too much not to equip us, train us, and develop us. The word instructs, teaches, blesses, corrects, arms, defends, and every other thing to empower us to walk in his way, to stand on his word, because he loves us and he wants victory for us in Jesus, by Jesus, and through Jesus. He loves us too much to have it any other way. As we close, remember that you have worth. You are precious and valuable. Declare this. Today, God loves that I, now you, fill in the blank. Was it a meal you made, a smile you gave? Did you get out of bed, read, put on socks? There's no wrong answers here. There is no end to God's love and no end to the things about you that he loves each and every day. Pick one. And remember, the Lord loves you just because you're you. 1 John 4, 9-10 tells us, By this God's love was revealed in us, that God has sent his only-born Son into the world, that we might live through him. This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. His perfect love turned away God's wrath because of sin, and it casts out our fear too. See verses 18 and 19. We love because he first loved us. He just loves us. Can't get enough of us. And that is wonderful. See you next time.