What If?

For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation. —Psalm 100:5 NLT

First blog of the year (cue confetti)! If you’ve been following along so far, you may have noticed that these blogs have been related to my faith journey and how I’m processing what God has been teaching me. I appreciate you reading, and I hope somehow these thoughts are helpful on your journey, too.

As we move into 2025, I’ve been reflecting on all of the New Year’s Resolutions discussions. Some still believe it’s an important practice, while others not so much. Depending on which entity conducted the survey, the top resolutions for the year mostly boil down to physical or financial health goals. Many articles offer tips on how to make resolutions stick, while others offer consolation for those who have already messed up on their resolutions. Personally, I’ve never really made resolutions, partly due to being in church work. It always feels like January really sneaks up with all the end of the year activities of the Christmas season. Maybe resolutions should be made starting in February. It also somehow feels like societal peer pressure in a way, and that’s not usually a good thing.

But I digress. As I was thinking about resolutions, and thinking about faith and my journey to follow the Lord more closely, maybe there is one resolution I want to make and keep. I have been honored to bring the word a few times in my time as a worship leader, once because of the pastor’s baby arriving early—on a Sunday morning, and two other times on purpose, planned in advance. The most recent time, I shared a message entitled “All I Need to Know.” Something brought that to mind a few days ago as potential resolution material for this year, so I thought I would share it with you.

The Lord is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in him. —Nahum 1:7 NLT

I spent many years in a challenging wilderness season, which included a lot of health troubles and surgeries, loss, and other challenges that stretched me and my faith. When I was invited to prepare a message for the first Sunday of a series about sharing your testimony, I thought about what I had learned through all of it. I realized that learned all I really need to know in life in that season: God is Good. When I see everything that happens in life through the lens that God is good, then…

I know God’s motivation is always love…

In “Ten Ways to Be Perfect” from The Jesus Storybook Bible for children by Sally Lloyd-Jones, we see the story of the Israelites and the Ten Commandments. The Israelites, as we know, were impatient and frustrated with God. They griped that God didn’t want them to be happy. Lloyd-Jones phrases it like this: “‘God has brought us out here to kill us. God doesn’t love us!’ But they didn’t know God very well, did they?” The Israelites assumed that God didn’t love them because they were unhappy with their circumstances. They didn’t trust God enough to see his goodness and provision, or that his motivation is always love. God led them out of Egypt because of his love for them. The story goes on to explain that God was motivated by his love for the Israelites all along, including when he gave them the “ten ways to be perfect” or the Ten Commandments.

Craig Dennison of First15 says this: “God’s love for you is sure…As a Christian you are living under God’s grace, not works. God loves you because he loves you—not because of what you think about yourself or what you do. Therefore, release any thoughts you have of yourself that don’t line up with God’s word. Let go of any burdens you’re carrying today in light of his love. And experience the transforming power of a life lived in response to the faithfulness of God.”

I know God is kind…

Life is really hard, as we all have experienced, but it doesn’t have to be our undoing. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 NIV, “we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” And Lamentations 3:22 NIV reminds us that “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.” Once we truly accept and trust that God’s motivation is always love, we see that when he calls us to grow and be stretched, it really is because he knows we will be better off that way. Our refinement is never because he wants to be hard on us or cause us pain, but always because he loves us too much to let us settle for less than his best for us. During my ongoing health saga, I saw God’s kindness in the ways he had strengthened me in earlier situations that helped me get through those. God is also near to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18), and he meets us in times of grief. It’s hard to understand a lot of things that happen this side of Heaven, but we can be assured that God loves us and weeps with us when we face those things.

I know God is trustworthy and faithful…

2 Timothy 2:13 explains that “If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” We can trust that God really does have our best interest in mind. That trust begins with believing that God really loves us enough to want what’s best for us. Hebrews 10:23 says “Let’s hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, because the one who made the promises is reliable.” We can rely on God. God is with us through every step of growth and through every storm that demanded our growth. God chooses over and over again to be with us, to show up for us. 1 Thessalonians 5:24 NIV gives great assurance in this: “The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.” We can be confident that God will guide us wherever he calls us.

I know God is working and His plan is worth the wait…

I use the “Connect the Dots” analogy when I tell people about the road to “Mercy Still” being my first published composition. You can read more about that in my first blog. In a connect-the-dots puzzle, you can often see the picture you are supposed to have at the end without actually connecting all of the dots. Life isn’t usually that obvious though. We can’t see “the picture” until we stop and look back at all the “dots” we have lived through, all those dots that God was connecting along on the way to making our lives a beautiful picture.

It is also helpful to remember that God didn’t just start connecting the dots recently. When we can’t see how things could possibly work out in our situation, we can look to scripture to see how much effort God put into giving his children life. Our redemption story didn’t just start with Mary having a baby. God connected the dots of our salvation story all the way back to the Garden. If our salvation is important enough to God for him to connect that many dots, then he must care about us enough to keep working for our good. Romans 8:28 NIV says: “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose,” and Ephesians 3:20 CEB says: “Glory to God, who is able to do far beyond all that we could ask or imagine by his power at work within us.” God has good plans for us that are bigger than we can even imagine, and in his goodness, he will work to complete it. There’s a saying, “If it’s not good, God’s not finished.” It can be challenging to hold onto hope when it seems like everything is falling apart, but we can trust that God isn’t finished with his redemptive work in our story.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. —Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

Knowing that God is faithful and that we can place our hope in him is one thing. Having complete trust that he is good, even when life isn’t, is another. It is easy to say God is good when we are experiencing obvious goodness. It can be harder to do that when we are weighed down by hardship or grief. Sometimes it is hard to make the transition between “God loves me” and “God’s plans for me are good.” Especially if we have to wait to see those good plans. I mentioned that these thoughts came from a message I gave a little while ago (link below). The scripture for the day was Romans 4:13-25 NIV. This passage is about Abraham and his faith. Abraham’s story has continued to become more and more special to me. The odds were stacked against Abraham, but this is what Paul wrote about him (emphasis added):

18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 22 This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”

Abraham didn’t have a tangible reason to hope when he first received the promise, but he was fully persuaded that God could do what he promised. There’s another saying: “God said it. I believe it. That settles it.” Abraham believed this way, and his faith was credited to him as righteousness. That’s the kind of faith I want. I heard a radio DJ talking about living by faith and not sight, and for the first time, that phrase struck me in a new way. I would rather live by faith, because I don’t always see a way forward. But I do believe that God is good, that he loves me, and that he is working for my good. God said so, and I believe it. And that settles it.

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. —1 John 4:16a

So…back to resolutions, what if the only resolution you made this year was to see everything through the lens that God is good? Would it change anything about how you live this year? For me, the answer is yes, so resolution made. Amen.

If you would like to hear the message that inspired this blog, you can listen to it here.