Do You Believe It?

December 03, 2020

Pastor Ken Brown Jr

Do you believe it? Hi, this is pastor Ken and these are my thoughts on a Thursday. Do you believe it? As we near the close of 2020 this is a question I have heard enough times to last well into the middle of the decade. It seems as if this year has brought more than ample opportunity to restate the last seemingly unimaginable occurrence and utter it yet again to anyone who is listening…Do you believe it? Not all of it appearing to be negative, in January there were the customary “It’s the new year already!... Do you believe it? Then in February the Stock Market was getting ready to break into new territory as it approached 30,000. I said it myself to several people…Do you believe it? Then there was the impeachment trial, the news of a new virus sweeping through China, then Europe, especially Italy. I heard it again and again…Do you believe it. Finally, it made its way to America, the stock market tanked, and the first cases of the Corona Virus showed up in little old Delaware, now many were the utterances…Do you believe it? 2020 hasn’t seemed to get easier since then in many respects. Churches closed, schools closed, restaurants closed, some reopened months later, many have not…some likely never will. As it seems we are now slipping backward and giving up some of the precious little ground we had recovered over the summer, I say it yet again…Do you believe it? My question to you however isn’t about Covid, or the economy, the election or anything having to do directly with 2020. It is this…God is being so, so, very good to us…right now! Do you believe it? I’m serious…Do you believe it? You see this is a fundamental knowledge of God that we must come to if faith is to have no bounds in our lives. This is critical if you desire to walk with God with the kind of confidence we see in Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Jonah, Peter, John, Paul…the list goes on and on…but does it include us? What unchangeable truth these people and countless others, both named and unnamed in God’s word understood is this. God is, has always been, and will always be Good. It is not something He does, it’s what He is…it is His very nature. James 1:7 says this: Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. What God gives us is good and He is good and has no ability to be anything else. But, does everything come from God? Doesn’t our enemy bring bad things to our lives? Reasonable questions to be sure. One of the many things we garner from the story of Job’s life is that Satan is unable to move against God’s people without God’s permission. I would even argue that the devil requires God’s allowance to come against any one of God’s creation loved immense and intensely by Him. What we know for certain though is that God intends to increase and bless all those who are His even through the attacks of Satan against them. And we know that all things work together for good, to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purposes. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Romans 8:28,29 (NKJV). There is nothing that can ever happen to you or even to the world (to the degree that it affects you) in which God has not already decided that He intends to use it to make you more like His Son, so that you will be found fully acceptable to Him and able to live with Him eternally in His presence! That alone…seriously…that alone proves He is always being so, so very good to you. We cannot do enough good, to be good enough to be found worthy, but God is constantly allowing things to affect us that give us opportunities through faith to allow the transformative power of His Holy Spirit to make us more like Jesus, which does make us worthy…Do you believe it? Saying something as if it is a fact is one thing. Knowing something to be a fact is intelligence. Believing something causes it to become empowering because no one truly believes something and does not act upon that belief. James said that faith without works is dead…in other words, believing without doing is simply knowing. I can say that exercise is good for the body. It does nothing for my physique. Again I can be knowledgeable that exercise is indeed good for the body and my muscles will remain as they are. However, if I believe that exercise is good for the body, I will not be able to refrain from exercise because of my belief and I will look expectantly for the changes even as they are developing. God is good all the time…and all the time God is good. We say it a lot in church. Most of us would say we know it to be true. Do you believe it? To help me in my belief of it I have actually changed the way I say it. When I speak of it to myself and to others I say it just the way I have been stating it today. I say it in the form of a question to remind myself it deserves an answer. Do you believe how very, very good God is being to us right now? I find that saying it this way spurs the faith I hold to action. The first of which comes in the affirmative answer. Yes! God is being so, so, very good to us right now! Right now. In the midst of 2020 and all it has brought. And next year in whatever 2021 might bring…and in the years beyond. GOD IS BEING SO, SO, VERY GOOD TO US! Saying it is good, knowing it is important…believing it is critical! That list of believers I mentioned earlier…none of them would have been notable in the least if their faith in the fact that God is good, and was in fact being good to them in their challenging times had not spurred them to act as if it were so. The same is true for you, brother, sister in Christ, it is true for all of us. If we want to see the power of God in our personal stories we have to live and act as if God is always being so, so, very good to us…Do you believe it? For the Lord is good; His loving kindness is ever lasting and His faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 100:5 So now, acting on the belief that no matter what the circumstances might look like, God is being so, so, very good to you…go be awesome!