God's Character

 by Kim Kuhlman

God is everywhere. God is faithful. God doesn’t waste anything. God never changes. God loves you. God is good.  These are among the statements about God’s character that I have heard spoken this week.  

I have of course heard these true statements before, but what I am learning from the children, the moms/grandmoms, the prisoners, the volunteers, the Mosaic staff, etc. here in South Africa, is that a person doesn’t have to repeat the above statements during trials like a mantra……trying to convince themselves…….You live it…..you believe it with your heart and soul as it is based on a true relationship with the one true God of the universe.  

How full of amazing grace and full of freedom and joy that relationship is.  It also answers all those questions, right?  Questions like how can a woman living in poverty who has trauma in her past open one arm to take in a foster child and raise the other arm to praise God with sincere joy on her lips?  The question of why was that child born with a handicap and a hard road in life – yet they sing “This is the day the Lord has made”?  A question like how in the world can a prisoner sing and play instruments to the glory of God…..singing their hearts out of “Amazing Grace” in a room in the prison? 

The answer is that they understand that God’s love is not proven to us by our circumstances……God’s love for us was already proven to us by the cross.  The answer is that God’s love for them never changes.  The answer is that no one can take God’s love away from them. The answer is that God’s love is in that prison. 

To sum it up, the answer is that their Hope, Love, and JOY comes from the Lord!  That is not like “happiness” which we pursue in earthly things and never manage to obtain, not at all like “happiness” that goes up and down with our circumstances and never lasts.  It is the TRUE JOY, hope and contentment that comes from knowing Jesus and leaning on Him no matter what the circumstances.  The TRUE HOPE that comes from reveling in the fact that you are a child of God and He’s got this…..no plan B needed…..God already had plan A before we were born!  

My grandpop’s favorite verses…..Lamentations 3:22 and 23:  Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  The are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

“God has plans, not problems.  There is no panic in heaven.” – Corrie Ten Boom