He Is a Good, Good Father

The Lord often teaches me great lessons while I'm alone in my car driving, and on this gloomy rainy day, that is just what He did. See, I was upset and in my emotions about a particular situation that involved my children.

I co-parent my two children with my ex-husband, who is not a believer, so at times, it is very challenging as we don't always agree. Well, I had instructed my children not to do something and found out that the very thing I told them not to do -- they were doing because their father allowed it in his house. I became very frustrated not only because their father was going against what we had previously agreed on but also felt like my children didn't have any respect for me.

Now, as I was driving down the road ALL IN my emotions, I was thinking things like, "Since they don't respect me, I'm going to stop treating them to this or that, "I will no longer reward them with this nice thing," or "Oh and forget about me buying them their first car, they can ask their dad since that is who they listen to."

Suddenly, the Lord interrupted my negative and emotional thoughts with

"Is that what I do?"

I was instantly gripped with conviction. He reminded me of how even when I was outside of His will and disobedient to Him, He still chose to bless me and draw me to Himself by His goodness. The Words of the Lord began to flood my mind as I recalled the scriptures:

Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? - Romans 2:4

"...For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. - Matthew 5:45

He began to reveal to me how He sends blessings to those on the earth, both inside and outside of His will. Whether people hate and deny or love Him, He chooses to bless them. In that same way, it rains on the just and the unjust. He told me that He is no respecter of persons, that He chooses to bless those whom He chooses, and their right standing with Him is not a factor when it comes to blessing.

He showed me that if He only blessed those who are in right standing with and following after Him, that would be a form of manipulation to get people to choose Him.

He is a good God and Father who does not need to manipulate people unto Himself. If He did, He wouldn't be good. He doesn't dangle blessings in people's faces to get them to come to Him. He wants us to choose Him because we want Him, not because we want something from Him. He gave us free will from the very beginning, and we have always had a choice.

Needless to say, I was wrecked and began to weep as I saw a deeper glimpse of just how good He is.

He is so good that He allows the sun to shine and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

I began to lay the situation with my children at His feet and ask Him to show me how to love my children the same way He loves us, regardless of how they treat me. Just like He did, praying, "Forgive them, Father, they know not what they do.", and for Him to give me the grace to walk it out. Also, to fine-tune my disciplinary side to ensure I parent them properly, and not to give or take away things in order to manipulate a behavioral change that is only outward and not heart-deep. Because love truly conquers ALL.

He continued speaking to me about His blessings and revealed to me that many are deceived into thinking that a measure of how blessed someone is, correlates to their right standing with Him. He showed me that many think that just because they have been blessed with many great things in life, it somehow shows they are right with God when, in reality, they are far from Him. There can be people greatly blessed with all the money, loving family, notoriety, success, and even ministry growth, but be headed straight for hell. We need to not measure our uprightness with God by how blessed we are.

In that same way, a person's lack does not denote their right standing with God. We cannot look at someone who is going through hard times and say, "Oh, they must not be right with God." The story of Job is a great example of this. The Bible says Job was a man who was blameless and upright and one who feared God and shunned evil. Yet God allowed satan to take everything away from Job at one point. God told satan that there was none like Job in all the earth, and satan attacked Job's character, saying that the only reason he was such an upright man was due to God's protection and blessing. That if Job were to lose it all, he would turn his back on the Lord. The Lord allowed satan to afflict Job but not kill him. In the end, Job honors the Lord even more than he did in the beginning and the Lord blessed his latter days more than his beginning.

What a good God and Father we serve, One that pours out His goodness on everyone in this world regardless of where we stand with Him. The greatest way He demonstrated this is while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He gave the greatest blessing and gift to the world, which is His only begotten Son... While we were yet sinners! Before we were justified in His sight! His wisdom and goodness is astounding. Who is like the Lord??

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