S.M. Wibberley’s Blog

This post is an example of nurturing my first love for Jesus.

You Lord Jesus, are far better than anything we could imagine, for in you there is no flaw—we have never experienced anything like that here on earth, where everything has weaknesses, problems, faults and lacks.

But in you there is no lack, no end of supply, no failure, no loss. You are all that is good; you are void of what is bad. I praise you that you cannot sin, you cannot lie, you cannot be tempted with evil, you cannot do any wrong–for these are the opposite of your beautiful nature.

You are unchangingly pure, persistently positive, absolutely powerful and unceasingly consistent in protection. Therefore, we can call you our Rock, our Fortress, our Defender, our Shield, our Strength, our Stronghold.

You are glorious beyond our conception, you are great beyond comprehension, you are good beyond understanding and you are gracious beyond measure.

In you is found all we desire, for we were made to live in you, with you, by you, for you. In you we are complete, with you we are protected, by you we are empowered, for you we can live and work, love and die.

Help us all to live in the light of your beautiful, fullorbed character, Lord Jesus.

As I write this (on a summer day some years ago), I am enjoying a perfect, absolutely gorgeous day: pleasantly hazy and sunny, in the 70s with a slight breeze, giving the air a refreshingly cool touch.

Praise be to you, Lord, for such a foretaste of Heaven and the New Earth, where all will be perfect every day. There we won’t need the challenges of weather or the news to keep us occupied. Your presence and personality, filling all the universe, will be far more than enough to keep us fascinated and focused.

And there are hints that you will have lots of engaging work for us to do there for you. You are such a creative God: there will be no end to the new things you will bring out of your infinite mind and heart.

You, the One and Only True God, are perfect, immutable, lovely and wise, powerful and just, pure, kind and forgiving, gracious and good. You are worthy of our whole-hearted worship, of continual and complete follower-ship, of full obedience, absolute surrender and total trust.

“and my hope is in you all day long.”

[In what else, in whom else can we hope? There is no one else powerful enough, big enough, loving enough, wise enough, long-lived enough to hope in. And there is no one else who is faithful, gracious, good and great like you, who cares for your sheep, protects your lambs, leads your flock.

You are the God of hope who desires to fill us with all joy and peace, if we will only trust in you. Then our lives will overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Rom. 15:13)

I praise you, Lord Jesus, for what you will do in this day, in the large situations before me as well as the small details. I praise you that you will do this in your goodness and grace, in your wisdom and love. I praise you for the need to wait, for the opportunity to trust before seeing your help, for the chance to give the sacrifice of thanksgiving, for the privilege of giving you honor by responding in faith rather than in fear.

You are worthy of our trust, our worship, our obedience, our praise. May you be exalted in my life today, O Lord God, King of glory, Ruler of all.

Psalm 25:1 “To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul;”

[It is wonderful that I can freely, transparently tell you, Lord, everything I am thinking, wanting and feeling. You know it all anyway; nothing shocks you; and you are “good and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy and truth to all those who call upon you” (Ps. 86:5). I don’t need to fear being transparent, for you are not out to punish but to protect, to nurture, mature and guide. You are the God of Goodness, so I can be fully open to you.]

Psalm 25:2 “in you I trust, O my God.”

[Your Character, your Word, and your Acts all give far more than ample reason for trusting you. You are perfect in Mercy and Justice; you are Lavish in Love and Kindness; you are consistent in Goodness and Grace, you are unwavering in Presence and in Power.

Your Word is living and strong, shining the light of wisdom on our way. Your actions, both in history and in the present, show your careful planning, persistent follow-though and sacrificial love in dealing with us. You are utterly trustable, and to trust you is a great opportunity to give you glory; you are totally worthy of our confidence in you. Help me to rest in your goodness today.]

Psalm 18, one of my favorites, helps me to deal with the anxiety and fear that so often grip me –and all of us at times. It shows me the way to defeat fear and anxiety, which is using the sword of the Spirit.

Psalm 18:1-3 “I love you, O LORD, my strength.” [my weakness is both real and irrelevant, for His strength is everything.]

“The LORD” [the holy, sinless, completely other One, who rules with indisputable might]

“is my rock,” [my unshakable stability]

“my fortress” [my sure security]

“and my deliverer” [my ever-present protection];

“my God” [the powerfully creative and utterly faithful One who has claimed me as His own]

“is my rock” [He has made Himself the place of stability, safety and security for me, more strong and immovable than the Alaska mountain in this picture],

“in whom I take refuge” [this is my part, fleeing to Him in praise and persistence, thanksgiving and trust when difficulties, disappointment and seeming defeat come].

“He is my shield” [my personal, portable protection, coverinfg my head in every moment of the daily battle]

“for all who take refuge in him” (v 30) [Again, here is my part in the process: I must run to Him, think His Truth, trust Him—for He is the only place of safety and I must choose to stay in His Way.]

So, let’s daily take refuge in Him, offering thanksgiving in all things so He may show us the salvation of the Lord.

More on  the goodness of God demonstrated in the challenges of life.

Paul recognized  the goodness of God in his difficulties and chose in faith to embrace his weakness. When Paul prayed to have his thorn removed God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul’s response was, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weakness so that the power of Christ may rest on me!” (2 Cor. 12:9,10).

What if Paul had sat in prison sulking and feeling sorry for himself, angry at his captors and God? We wouldn’t have two thirds of the New Testament! For it was in the quietness of prison that Paul had the time to write all those letters.

The truth is, “God is good, all the time!” and “All the time God is good!” We need to expand our vision of who He is, so that when things don’t go the way we want, we can, by faith, declare and embrace His undesired goodness. We need to grasp that He has a plan and will work it out. We need to comprehend that for each disappointment He has a sequel.

As it says in Hebrews 12:1&2, He has laid out a race for us, He goes before us and is working on maturing and completing our faith in the process. He calls us to run the race, looking to Jesus, not at our circumstances, our comfort or the crowd.

As it says in Psalm 23, He calls us to live in the truth that He, as our good Shepherd, knows where He’s going (in paths of righteousness) and we can follow Him with confidence, through beauty and beasts, through light and darkness, through green pastures and valleys of shadow.

We can choose to measure things by our own very limited, self-centered human wisdom, complaining when we don’t get our way, and living in discontent, self-pity and shallow faith. Or we can choose to be confident in God’s all-encompassing goodness and wisdom, embracing whatever He brings, finding our rest in Him alone, remembering that our Hope comes from Him (Ps. 62:5).

Let us live in the light of His beautiful character, expressed in the declaration.

Picture: ffrazzzled language learners in 1980

Praise be to you, Lord, for your goodness to us, of which there are two kinds. First there is that which we commonly express after we get what we want. We say can, “God is good!” for we can easily see His goodness when He gives us the pleasant, the preferred, the prayer answers we wanted and the protection that we crave.

Then there is the other kind, when God’s unwanted goodness comes our way: the trials, chastening and challenges He sends or allows,, like unanswered prayers (actually, the answer is “no” or “wait”), the protection withheld, healing not given and problems unsolved. These all are also your goodness, Lord, as you have higher, deeper, longer and wider reasons for them.

It was your goodness, Lord, that sent Joseph to Egypt as a slave, that sent him to prison for doing what was right, and that in the end made him the Prime Minister of Egypt so he could save his family, the Egyptians, many from surrounding countries–and eventually us, as his work preserved the life of his brother Judah from whence came the Messiah.

All of this was your goodness, although much of it did not look, feel or smell like it to Joseph at the time. But he, by faith, declared his suffering and trials good, as he said to his brothers concerning their selling him as a slave, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Gen. 50:20).

Help us to remember that the next time things seem to “go south” —God has a plan will carry us through to better things.

More on peace.

Lord Jesus, we could never have known peace without your revealing to us the way of faith –salvation through the forgiveness of sins apart from the law, fully dependent on your finished work.

Praise be to you that we can today walk down the hallway of peace, moving towards the light—having peace in our thoughts, will, emotions and relationships–because you, Lord Jesus, are our Prince of Peace, our King of Peace, our Presence of Peace.

Praise you that as we rest in you, accepting your forgiveness, forgiving ourselves and forgiving others, we can be channels of peace to those around us, letting your light of grace and mercy shine out of us.

Help us to so brightly shine today that there will be more and more glory for you in our lives!