The Greatest Good

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}

• S: Genesis 3:1-7, Luke 24:28-35, John 19
• O: Life can be filled with eye-opening events.
• A: It can be too easy, at times, to doubt the goodness of God. How many times have you prayed to ask for God's help or guidance with something and didn't ever hear the answer? How many times have you found yourself in situations in life that were quite trying? Times when you felt that maybe you just couldn't go on, and you asked God for strength, and you didn't feel that He was hearing you? It is said that God answers prayer in three ways: yes, no, and wait. It can be very easy, at times like these, to feel that maybe God isn't as good as they say He is. God reveals Himself to us in ways of His own choosing, not necessarily the ways we might want Him to. He revealed Himself to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden when they might have least wanted to hear from Him: after eating of the fruit from the forbidden tree. He revealed Himself to His disciples when they expected it so little that they didn't even recognize Him: on the road after his crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. Have you ever considered that maybe the only answers you've heard are the yes answers because that's the only answers you want to hear? God reveals Himself to us in His own ways and in His own time. Such as he did on the cross in the form of His son, Jesus Christ. Which is the barometer by which we must measure God's goodness. Not how He answers this prayer or that. Not what is happening in your life today. But the fact that God loved you so much that He died on the cross for your sins. That, my friend, is the Greatest Good.
• P: Lord, help me to use my time with You in prayer not to ask for help in areas where I'm struggling, but to ask that You use your divine influence with elected leaders who are making the decisions that may change our lives on earth forever, and to to use Your divine influence with us as we go to the polls to choose who those next elected leaders will be. Help me use my time in prayer to ask that You shower others with blessings. Not that You help me to make ends meet, or land the next big promotion, etc. For I will receive Your blessings through seeing them come showering down on others.

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