Good, perfect, and pleasing.

I've been holding so tightly to what I think is mine--my relationships, my time, my job, my resources, my life, my goals, and all the rest.  I strain to maintain the status quo.  I vacillate between relief that these things will remain and fear that they won't.

Of course, these things have never been mine. But my acknowledgment that these things are instead from and for our Lord is often inconsistent with my lifestyle. For that reason, I've found the points below to be particularly challenging.

Because God is good, God's plan is good. If I'm seeking the Lord with regard to my relationship, time, job, resources, you name it, then I must trust God to bring good through those things--even when it is not the good I had planned or fails to fit my perception of good.  If it's God's will, I must trust that it will remain.  If it's not, I must trust that there's something good instead.  In either event, I trust God.  And it becomes less about wanting good and more about wanting God.

Because God is my ultimate good, I must replace whatever I'm seeking with God.  In reality, I'm replacing the disappointment and burden of believing the good in my life is defined--and determined--by me.  I so often pursue whatever good thing I'm attempting to maintain, while failing to pursue the One who makes that thing good.  Maybe you can relate. 

And I find myself at both the most challenging and sweetest point: God's will be done. God's good, perfect, and pleasing will be done in my relationships, my time, my job, my resources, my life, my goals, and all the rest.  God's will be done in yours.

God's will be done because my finite mind cannot fathom the good God has planned. God's will be done because only through God can I fully love others. God's will be done because that is where our experience of God's love, glory, and plan is at its fullest.  I don't always feel it, but I'm learning to want it.

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, perfect, and pleasing will.  Romans 12:2.

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28.

"Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever and ever."  Hebrews 13:20-21.

                           

Ahem. Ahem. Allow me to introduce the robust specimen I encountered during my trip to Colorado. Try not to lust, my friend.

Much love to you,

Paige