You just won a new Mercedes Benz.
We all want good things in our lives – but in order to receive the good, we have to release the bad. In order to step into the new you have to let go of the old. Imagine someone giving you a brand new Mercedes Benz. The car is totally free and completely yours – fully paid! You take the keys, get in the car, smell that new car smell and are so excited at the thought that this amazing new car is now yours. But when it’s time to go somewhere, you decide to get into your old junker and leave the Mercedes in the driveway. Why would anyone hold onto their old junk car after being gifted a Mercedes?! It would be a ludicrous thing to do.
We do this all the time in our daily lives, though, when we choose to settle for the ‘not that great’ or the ‘bad’ even though God has His best available to us. We all want good things in our lives, but to receive the good we have to release the bad. You can only step into the ‘new’ by letting go of the ‘old’. We need to understand that it’s one thing to come alive spiritually (salvation), but it’s another thing to live in the fullness of God’s goodness (healing, deliverance, blessing, favor).
We can live each week going to church and acknowledging that God has made us promises, but never actually claim those promises for ourselves. We visit the ‘good’ on Sundays at church, but leave it there and drive home in our junker. There is a better way.
“You were taught…to put off your old self…and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
[Ephesians 4:22]
If it’s not good, it’s not God.
God is a good Father and you are loved by Him. These are the two overarching truths of your faith, and the fullness of the gospel. You are loved so much that He sent His only Son to rescue you from a life of sin, wash you clean and place you on a path of significance. Your only job is to receive His love, and then apprehend the good things He has for you.
Understand that everything that’s good is from God, and the closer you are to GOD, the closer you are to GOOD. When you are near Christ, you’re near increase, mercy, and goodness. If it’s not good, it’s not from, or of, God.
- Promotion, Peace, Prosperity – they’re good; They’re from God.
- Poverty, Oppression, Depression – they’re not good, they’re not from God.
- The closer you are to God the closer you are to good.
You can apprehend and live in His promises of blessing and abundance today. First, put off the things that have plagued you in the past: offenses, abuses, addictions, anger, bitterness and wrong mindsets, to name a few. Then, put on the grace of God, His love that restores you and His Spirit which empowers you. Don’t settle for less, instead pray and begin to believe God to bring good in your life. He is a good, good Father and you are very loved by Him.
“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever”