Today’s Encouragement is Matthew 7:9-11 NLT “You parents-if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? [10] Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! [11] So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.
Good gifts –
Sometimes God gets wrongly blamed for bad things in our lives. We might think… “This (insert… any bad thing) happened to me (or to them) because of my sin, or because I’m not a ‘good enough’ Christian… or… So, this must be God punishing me!”
Sometimes well-meaning people say things like, “Sometimes God uses a 2×4 to get your attention!”
But this is Wrong! It’s Wrong-Thinking about our loving Father God. As today’s scripture says, God is the source of Good Gifts, not harmful things, accidents or tragedy or illness. He doesn’t punish us like an angry abusive parent (which would be sin)! Instead, He is our Loving, Forgiving, Merciful Father… and all our well-deserved punishment – because all have sinned (Rom 3:23) was laid on Jesus at the cross.
God is the source of Life, not death, illness, nor tragic accidents!
And He is Lord of all, and for His own people, He will cause all things to work together for their good (Rom 8:28).
So as believers, we run To God in prayer when these bad things happen, not away From Him. Because we know that even in this terrible situation, God will bring about Good for His people. So, we pray with hope and trust, that whatever tragedy we may be facing. God is NOT punishing us and instead, He is working all things together for our good.
All Things
Covenant Worship
Today’s Encouragement 