Expecting His Goodness!

Good Monday morning! Are you expecting a week of GOOD, or something else?  The title of this week’s message is about expectation.  I want us to open the bible to see all the “good” that God desires for us.  I want to start out with a very familiar scripture, but if you’ll take the time let this sink into your heart, it will change your expectation to good from whatever else it was. 

When God prophesied this, Israel was in captivity to Babylon, it didn’t look like they had a future, much less a good one, but God wanted them to know this was not their future, that He had a plan for them and that it was. Good.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

AMP

For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

EASY

I, the Lord, tell you this: I have decided what I will do for you. I have plans to help you to do well. I do not want to hurt you. I want to give you hope for a good life in the future.

ISV

For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for well-being, and not for calamity, in order to give you a future and a hope.

NCB

For I know full well the plans I have for you, plans for your welfare and not for your misfortune, plans that will offer you a future filled with hope.

You may be going through something right now, and it doesn’t look good.  Right in the midst of trouble and problems, God speaks life to us and reminds us of His Word, of His Goodness and of His Plans.  Even in captivity, God brought His Light, hope and and expectation of good to His people. 

You and I are already in the light and goodness of God, we are in the “Good Plan” that God has for us, because we are in Christ.   

1Peter 2:9 (Phillips) But you are God’s “chosen generation”, his “royal priesthood”, his “holy nation”, his “peculiar people”—all the old titles of God’s people now belong to you. It is for you now to demonstrate the goodness of him who has called you out of darkness into his amazing light. In the past you were not “a people” at all: now you are the people of God. In the past you had no experience of his mercy, but now it is intimately yours.

Psalm 27:13 – I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living.

Brothers and sisters, meditate on these words today and this week and let them bring light, hope, peace, and goodness to your heart and situation.  He is for you, never against you, He loves you, and He wants His plans to come to pass for you in the land of the living, right here, right now in this life and for evermore! .  

Philippians 1:6 – being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

Philippians 2:13 – for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

Psalm 107:21Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!

Let’s give thanks to Lord that it is His good pleasure to work in each one of us His will and His good for us. Let us also give thanks for all the good He has shown us, for the good He is showing us now, and for the goodness He will show us in the future and forever!

Remember, you are Loved, you are Righteous, and you are His!