Matthew 6:25-34(NIV)
25″Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life[b]?
28″And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
I chose the subject God is good because so often it is said but do we really know what it means. Every day we hear people saying, and we ourselves oftentimes say the phrase ‘God is good all the time’ but do we really understand what we are saying? Many times people get excited and say God is good when they have received a monetary blessing that they didn’t expect or one that they expected that was a long time coming. People say God is good when they are able to purchase something they really need or want at a very low price or if they are given that item for free by someone. In short, the majority of the time someone uses the phrase God is good is after something good has happened to them or it is a phrase that is repeated in their church home.
I am her to tell you that God is good all the time and all the time God is good. I can say this cause as the Williams Brothers sing I am a living testimony. What I’m about to tell you is not something that I was told that happened to my best friend, or my aunties cousin on her daddy’s side, or my supervisors ex-husband’s girlfriends mother in law. I am about to tell you what God has done for me.
In the latter part of the year of 2009 from around mid September to mid December my family was homeless. But even in that situation I can still hold my head high, lift my voice and testify that God is good. Someone may be saying to themselves I bet she wasn’t saying God is good while she was homeless and they would be right. When the crisis first hit I didn’t say God is good, I asked why is this happening to me. But now I know I had to go through it for the glory of God and in order to be able to testify and help someone.
As I look back on the experience I can only say Thank God . I used to hear people say hindsight is 20/20. As a child and teenager and even as a young adult I never understood what that meant. But now I know it means when you look back at certain events you can see things more clearly. So I was sitting at work one day, and the Holy Spirit gave me what I am about to give you.
God is good because even though we were without a home, we were never without shelter. God provided shelter for us daily until he blessed us with the apartment we are in now. God is good because during that experience we never went hungry, we never missed a meal.
I have four sons, three of which are old enough to be out there getting into anything and everything they want to. But God is good because even though times were hard and money was tight none of them did anything illegal to try to help get money or food for the family.
God is good because he placed people in our lives that he knew would provide for us during our time of crisis. Not only did they provide shelter and food but they also prayed for us and showed us so much love. We stayed a few weeks in a hotel room and the first Sunday there, my Pastor came and picked us up for church on the van, the next Sunday I believe the van was not running or something happened that we weren’t able to be picked up and I didn’t have enough money for bus fare for everyone to get to church and I wanted my whole family to be in church. I sat in that hotel room for as long as I could and finally I got up and started putting on my clothes and shoes and my oldest son asked where I was going and I said to the church. By the time I got to the church I was torn up emotionally, and my brothers and sisters in the Lord recognized it and they rallied around me and began to pray. Even with all them around me praying the one thing that echoed in my mind at the time and for weeks after that was the fact that I heard sister Brenda’s voice say Lord we bind the spirit of depression. At the time before the prayer I didn’t recognize that I was about to give in to the spirit of depression. But when I left the church I could still hear her voice and those words. So God is good because even though I was too emotional to hear him speaking directly to me I was able to hear him speak through someone else warning me about the spirit of depression. Whenever it seemed like I was never going to find a place to put my family I would momentarily begin to fell sadness and the Holy Spirit would take me back to that day of prayer and I would muster up the courage and the strength and the faith to say no to the spirit of depression.
So I say to my sisters in Christ who may be going through something right now, remember the words of the scriptures you read at the beginning of this article. God provides for the birds, surely He will provide for you. The birds don’t worry about food or clothing; we should be the same way. So what if you are poor and can’t buy the things others can buy or the things you want to buy. If you take careful inventory you will see that you may not have everything you want but you have what you need all provided by God the Father. James 2:5 says, Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?(NIV). This verse tells us that being poor in the eyes of the world is of no consequence because God has chosen us for an inheritance far more valuable than anything we can ever imagine owning here on earth. The gift of eternal life and an eternity spent worshipping our Lord.
GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME AND ALL THE TIME GOD IS GOOD!!