I am not sure what it is, but I have seen it often.
One mention of church or of God Himself, and for whatever reason, people get this look on their face, they straighten up and a level of resistance seems to rise within them.
I am not sure why some people get that way. Sometimes it’s due to a misunderstanding or an unfortunate experience. Sometimes it’s just out of fear.
Pre-conceived ideas can rob us of a life-changing experience. But whatever the reason, God tends to get people’s attention.
But what if getting to know God turned out to be a much better experience than what we had been imagining?
There are some things you should know about God. First of all, when you come to know God, you discover that you’re in good hands.
A verse in the Bible tells us that God is love. Not that God is like love or has the appearance of love, He IS love.
He is what love is all about, so with that in mind, you can have the confidence that all of His actions towards you are good ones.
Sometimes we don’t understand what God does, or we don’t understand why God did what He did in our lives, and we’re quick to conclude that God is not loving or that He doesn’t care.
But we need to remember that God is not like you and I.
His ways, His understanding of things is far above ours and when we learn to trust Him for this, we can rest in the understanding that God will do what’s best for us every time.
Another thing about God is that He is a great giver.
We can have a spouse or even a best friend who is very generous; they give just the right gifts. But God gives the greatest gifts.
When we know Him personally and we become His child, we discover that God loves to give good things to His children.
So, for the good things in life, He doesn’t want us to trust money, but to trust Him to bring good things into our lives.
The Bible tells us ‘God gives us richly all things to enjoy.’ He is the great provider, the source of every blessing, generous and utterly dependable.
This doesn’t mean we just sit back like spoiled children and expect God to give us things.
Rather as we follow Him, obey what He asks us to do, He loves nothing better than to give us good things.
Now, I’ve just mentioned two things about God and maybe you find these two things are attractive, something has started to pull at your heart when you think of God.
The thing is, God is stirring faith in you. He wants you to come to Him with all your failures, sins and shortcomings.
For several years, I played on our church’s baseball team, which played as part of a church league.
During one game, I played in left field. I was always glad when the ball was not hit my way. But when it was, I scrambled to catch it.
That day I caught the bal. I then threw it back into the infield, only to drive it into the ground about 20 feet ahead of me.
I picked up the ball and the same thing happened. I felt embarrassed, I felt my mistakes had let my team down.
Somehow the failures of the past follow us. Our past pursues us like a posse.
Can God forgive? Fear mismanaged can lead to sin, which causes us to hide from God. Maybe you feel you’ve disappointed God, but God has not abandoned you.
He loves you too much to leave you in doubt about His grace.
God is more than you think. So why not choose to trust Him?
Let Him be enough in your life. If you will do that, you will find that you’re in good hands. God really is OK.
This column is submitted by Tri - Community Baptist Church in Beiseker.
