Did you know that God wants you to experience the depths of His goodness? Yes, you…no matter what you might be facing.
It starts with understanding one of the most important things that will ever dawn upon your heart, and that is that God loves you. This love is not some restrained, distant love that has no tangible expression. God’s love has already found its ultimate expression in an immeasurable, unrestrained, boundless, and borderless outpouring of His grace in giving His Son for the whole world.
As John 3:16–17 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” This love is the basis of His goodness. As Romans 8:32 says, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
That’s quite a question! Paul is telling us that our God and Father, who didn’t withhold His own Son, will also freely give us everything we need.
It makes sense. Why would God withhold guidance from you if He didn’t withhold His Son? Why would God withhold meeting your material needs if He didn’t withhold His beloved Jesus? What about healing? What about peace? No, God wouldn’t withhold those things if He didn’t withhold His very own Son!
This brings me to a question I want to answer at least to a degree today: If God is not withholding, why am I not experiencing His goodness?
There are a number of answers to that question, but the most common one is found in Hosea 4:6. It’s the Lord speaking, and He says, “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.” Think of the weightiness of what God is saying. He says, “My people whom I love and whom belong to Me are destroyed. They are captive.” Why? Ignorance. They’re destroyed because they have no knowledge.
I believe there are at least three areas where our lack of knowledge especially hinders us.
- The knowledge of God’s nature. Many Christians are ignorant of God’s nature—they don’t believe that He is love, He is good, and that He is wholeness, wellness, abundance and soundness. Instead, they have a skewed view of the nature of God. They believe him to be angry, austere, aloof, and uncaring. That ignorance and lack of knowledge brings one into captivity and can even lead to ultimate destruction.
- The knowledge of God’s promises. It’s through the promises of God’s Word that we partake of His nature—a nature that is peace, abundance, healing, victory, guidance and protection. His promises are a pipeline that connects us with His nature. And His promises are exceedingly great and precious (2 Peter 1:3-4). A lack of knowledge of God’s promises can lead to our destruction, which is why you and I need to have a love affair with our Bibles. God’s written Word is our lifeline—our pipeline!
- The knowledge of how to cooperate with God. We cooperate with God in a number of ways. The first is by creating an atmosphere that is conducive to the Holy Spirit and His work. And the way we do this is by worshiping and praising God. Not only that, it’s essential that we cultivate an attitude of expectancy. God delights in an expectant heart. He is a mountain-moving, problem-shattering, sheep-directing God, and He can remove any obstacle, open any closed door or turn any situation around. Having a hopeful expectation is essential to robust faith! And finally, you cooperate with God through corresponding action to your faith. Faith without action is faith unreleased.
If one of these areas stood out to you as you read them, determine to lay hold of it and not let it escape you. Decide to study it and meditate on it to make sure that the seed is planted deeply into the soil of your heart. I believe this will help you as you draw closer to God and reach out for His goodness each and every day.
