Every Day Is A Good Day, With God – No Matter The Situation!
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord: “He is good; His love toward Israel endures forever.” And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.’ (Ezra 3:11); ‘Surely Your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.’ (Psalm 23:6)
In Ezra 3, we find the Israelites returning from their Babylonian exile; Jerusalem had been sacked, along with the Temple. The Temple itself was destroyed and had to be rebuilt, so Ezra commemorated the reconstruction of the Temple in Ezra 3:11. The people were humbled by their exile and turned back to God and recommitted to Him, by first rebuilding the Altar, then rebuilding the Temple itself. The Israelites had left God, God did not leave His people.
They had turned away first because of the ‘good times’; it was easy to put God in the rearview mirror as Israel prospered. God thus took His hand of protection off of them and without it, the Israelites began to flounder and eventually were taken over, the people taken captive and Jerusalem and the surrounding areas within the Promised Land destroyed and ruined. It is certain many cried out on why God allowed this to occur, but it was due to their own hardened hearts against Him that God chose to honor His Word, the woes of consequences for not following Him and His precepts.
Over the course of the 70 years in exile, many, like Nehemiah and Ezra, turned to God as He wanted them to, and God responded to them. The people who returned, led by these two men, found in the midst of ruin and despair the same God who was with them in the ‘good times’ when their forebearers worshipped God and obeyed Him, and were blessed. Though Jerusalem lay in ruins, those who began rebuilding it saw that despite the destruction, they had God and His provisions of goodness.
We humans often focus on the negative. While it is proper to see the negatives in life, the possible pitfalls we face, and the possibility in the reality of ‘bad’ our situations; we also must balance that by seeing the positives, the ‘good’ in any situation. We are coming each day closer to the Tribulation, and if not that, hurricane season is now only a couple of months away. But today we saw the sun rise, and so did we.
David recognized this when he wrote the last verse of Psalm 23; he recognized God would be with him as he went throughout life, especially when he would walk through at various times in his life ‘the valley of the shadow of Death’. But he knew even during the toughest of times, God would be there with David, to guide him, protect him, and comfort him. Even when being pursued by Saul in the desert, or when he was being hunted by his son Absalom, it is certain David praised God as he looked at the rising sun each day and saw God’s blessings around him.
In a turbulent world, we are told in the Bible we will face trials and tribulation, that there will be disasters that we will face individually or collectively. We need to be aware of them and with God’s wisdom deal with them, but we also need to take stock of the blessings God provides us. On a clear blue sunny day He as provided us good weather to work or play in; on stormy days He provides the rain needed for our lawns and flowers, and to grow the farmers’ crops. His blessings upon us are not necessarily what we want, but they always are what we need at that time. Always give Thanks to Him!
Don’t overlook His blessings, whether they are big or small – the Lord has provided it all!
