God is Good // When God Speaks, Pt 6

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

When you picture God, what is it that comes to mind? What’s He like? If you had to rattle off three adjectives to describe God, what would those three adjectives be? The reason I ask, is that our impression of God, your impression of God, has a lot to do with how you live your life.

So life is going along ok I guess, with its ups and downs, but something doesn’t quite feel right. You’re not completely happy with the way things are going, and that has a way of grinding away at you. The burdens become heavier, the longer you carry them. The spark you once had deep inside seems to have disappeared, and when you’re in the middle of all that, your perception of who God is, how He acts, is incredibly important because it’ll shape your expectation of His involvement in your life at that moment. Is God someone who’s going to graciously step in to comfort you or is He distant, uninvolved? What are you expecting of God?

Sadly too many people don’t have a right expectation, a good expectation, because instead of spending some precious time in God’s Word every day, they’re too busy, it would seem. What we need in those difficult times is a way back into the comforting arms of God. Would you agree? So, what is that way back? How do we experience the comfort of God?

I don’t know quite where you’re at in life at the moment, but we all need God’s comfort (God’s presence) from time to time, so let’s take a look at what God has to say about the way back. Psalm 119:49-52:

Remember Your Word to Your servant, in which You have made me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your promise gives me life. The insolent utterly deride me, but I do not turn away from Your Law. When I think of Your rules from old, I take comfort, o LORD.

Now all that seems a bit strange. I take comfort when I think of Your rules from old. Really? Do you? Rules. What’s the Psalmist actually saying to God, and more importantly, what’s God saying to you and me here today?

Well, back then, they didn’t have the whole Bible. They only had the first five books – the books of the Law, as they were known; the rules, if you will: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, although they’re much more than just rules. They’re the story of what God’s done in creation, in leading His people out of slavery, and taking them to the promised land. They’re the story of God’s love, and His faithfulness to those whom He loves.

This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your promise gives me life, writes the Psalmist. Where does he get his comfort from? From meditating on God’s Word; from reading God’s promises; from remembering the mighty things that God’s already done; from seeing who God is through what He says and more importantly, what He does for His people when they’re afflicted. You see, that’s the way back to God’s comfort.

When we’re caught up in the doom and gloom that sometimes envelops our lives, the last thing we expect of God is that He’d be gracious, full of grace that He is ready to pour out onto us. Oh, maybe you know the theory, "My grace is sufficient for you." Right? but knowing that in your heart, expecting that of God, experiencing that, that’s a whole another thing.

But today I believe with all my heart (in fact, I know with all my heart) that God wants you to become someone who experiences His grace every moment of every day, for the rest of your life. Is that something that you’d like to receive? Well, I can’t give it to you, but God can, through His Spirit and His Word. Psalm 119:55-58:

I remember Your name in the night, o LORD, and keep Your Law. This blessing has fallen to me, that I have kept Your precepts. The LORD is my portion; I promise to keep Your Word. I entreat Your favour with all my heart; be gracious to me, according to Your promise.

You see, the question is, what is it that would give you confidence (the complete and absolute confidence) in the graciousness of God towards you? How can the light of His grace shine in your heart when there’s darkness all around? And make no mistake about it; the Psalmist is writing those words there, going through some terribly dark times:

I remember Your name in the night, o LORD.

Isn’t night-time always the worst time? Things churn around in your mind, and the fear sets in; the cold sweats ... I’ve been there and I’m sure you have too. It’s in those dark hours that we need to remember the name of the LORD; to experience His blessings falling on us; to know that no matter what we may lose in this world, the LORD is our portion.

From where does the Psalmist draw his confidence? From knowing God’s precepts and keeping them. You have to know God’s Word to live God’s Word, and you know what it’s like. When you’ve been through a difficult situation but you’ve handled it in a Godly way – a loving way, a humble way, a way that honours God, it may have been hard. It may have hurt a lot, but doing good in the midst of bad puts a quiet confidence in your heart. Not an arrogant self-righteousness; that’s not what the Psalmist is talking about:

This blessing has fallen to me, that I have kept Your precepts.

In the darkest of a night, knowing that you’ve lived through those difficulties and challenges in a way that honours God is a huge blessing, and that gives you the confidence to entreat God in those dark hours that He would be gracious to you, according to His promises. It’s an incredibly powerful truth that our behaviour affects our thinking, and our thinking affects our behaviour. The two are inexorably linked. Without a shadow of a doubt, the biggest (I mean the single-biggest) change-agent for good in my life over the last twenty-one-and-a-half years, since I gave my life to Jesus, has been reading God’s Word almost every day of my life: Not every day, but most days, and not just reading His Word, but reflecting on it; receiving it, and then responding to it.

Think about it. We all want a better life. Right? Self-improvement is a multi-billion-dollar industry worldwide. There are business gurus; success gurus; life gurus; health gurus, all sprouting their stuff, all claiming to have the answers. If only we’ll buy their book; attend their conference; sign up for their programme online. People are lapping this stuff up, and paying through the nose for it.

Peter Drucker, the man who years ago invented the term the knowledge worker ... He once said the reason people use the word guru is that charlatan is often too long for the headlines. See, these are false prophets. It’s not that some of them don’t have some clever things to say, but they don’t have the answers for life. They don’t have the truth. They don’t have the wisdom of God. God on the other hand is ready, willing and able to speak His truth and His wisdom in abundance into your life, but are we listening? Psalm 119:59-60:

When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to Your testimonies; I hasten and I do not delay to keep Your commandments.

The man writing this Psalm is praying to God, and what he’s saying is, "You know, LORD, I’ve been thinking about this. I spend a lot of time in Your Word. I think about my ways: How I think; how I speak; how I behave, and when I bring those two things together, Your Word and my ways, I can’t help it. I turn my feet to walk in Your testimonies; in Your Word; in Your ways. I hasten; I don’t delay. As surely as night follows day, I end up keeping Your commandments."

What’s happening there is that this man is reading God’s Word; reflecting on it; thinking about it; receiving it, and then responding to it with his life. That is how powerful Godly change happens in our lives: Read, reflect, receive, respond. Let me say that again. Read God’s Word, reflect on it; think about what God’s saying to you and compare it to how you’re living life at the moment, receive that Spirit-breathed Word into your heart, and respond to it with your life. No one else can do that for you. No one else can bring that sort of powerful change to your life.