Good Saturday morning! I realize that by now you might be wondering where the devotional is for today and I only plead this one little excuse - I'm a slacker! At least for today, I didn't get up until 7:30 or so; slackin' if ever I saw an example of it. As it is Saturday, some of you probably haven't even looked for it yet, but that shouldn't be my excuse. :-)
The other day, I was looking up something in a modern dictionary and came across: goodness. The second definition or so stated that goodness was the same as saying God. As in saying "my goodness!" would be blasphemy by taking the Lord's name in vain. A little while back, Burt showed us a copy of a facsimile edition of Noah Webster's 1828 dictionary. I thought today that I would look up goodness there and see what old Noah had to say on the matter. Of course, there is no indication that goodness=God, but rather that God is good to us and that we praise God for His goodness. The second definition is one I like too: the moral qualities which constitute christian excellence; moral virtue; religion. So many of our words have been stolen or perverted in this world that I hate to let another one go.
You might wonder what would be wrong with equating a word to God. For one thing, God didn't tell Moses, "I Am goodness." He told Moses to tell the Israelites, "I Am that I Am!" God is not some undefined benevolence in the universe like good luck or good fortune; God is God! His holy name is not simply interchangeable for goodness. You wouldn't bow down and pray to "goodness" would you? Of course not, and praise God for His holy name!
Have your New Year's resolutions showed an effect yet? Not too skinny already? No longer feeling the temptation to put off writing to Grandma? We often want immediate results. We might look to the example of Pentecost and wonder why our improvement is taking so long. After all did not the early disciples receive immediate ability to heal, speak in foreign languages, and spread the Good News boldly? I put that very question to God last night and was stopped short. Jesus said that he worked with those men for more than three years before the Holy Spirit was given. Hardly one of those immediate results we look for. "Patience" is one of the one word answers I often get when asking the Lord for something; as in I don't have enough of it and need to learn to wait on the Lord.
Four gospel accounts come before the story of Pentecost in Acts. We too must learn and grow in Christ before we can "suddenly" have all these God-given abilities of the mature and powerful Christ-one. Paul gives us a list of gifts from the Holy Spirit, but not all of us will have all the gifts listed; 2 Peter 1:3-9 gives us a sequence of growth before we can become "productive and useful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Christian development is necessary, and yet the one thing we are often least inclined to wait on. God will complete His work in us in His own time. As His salvation is worked out in us, go ahead and prayerfully make those new year resolutions.
Resolve to learn the will of God more and more this year!
Bucky
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