Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts. Jeremiah 15:16

As Americans, we have no clue how fortunate we are to have such free access to the Word of God. Most of us have multiple copies of the Bible in our homes. Just doing a quick mental check, I could quickly lay my hands on at least 4 copies without taking more than 10 steps. It isn’t that way everywhere, and yet, while most of us own a Bible (or more), very few of us put them into use as we should. It doesn’t take long to take a look at our Bibles and see their perfect condition and realize that they are rarely opened. I was one of those people for years.

Just like young King Josiah, I was working to live a Godly life, by myself. I had been saved, but I hadn’t dedicated myself to really getting to know my God, or understanding what He expected from me, as a believer. When I started spending real time in God’s Word, and depending on His Holy Spirit to guide me in my reading and my study, I felt as though a whole new world had opened to me. To see the real depth of God’s love for us… for me… was incredibly humbling. And while my soul was humbled by the immensity of God’s plan for His creation, I began to see the details with which he placed people in the places they needed to be to do the things He wanted done. At the same time, I was blown away by the depth of His love for us, and His endless patience with us.

When we say God is good, it’s so much more than just the fact that He does good things. He “IS” good. He is the definition of good. Good things only come from Him. And not in the way that our human minds perceive good - we think of good as pleasant or happiness in a human sense and applying mostly to us. However, He is good in that He wants only the very best for us, and sometimes that can mean that we must be uncomfortable for a moment to achieve the growth that we really need. And it’s only once we get to that place, that we can look back and see that things did indeed work out for our good. The Bible is more than a compilation of stories, poems, and letters. It’s God’s very communication with us that in its entirety shows us how throughout the history of the world, He has worked His plan for people’s lives. We can see how Abraham must have felt as he trudged up the side of that mountain with his beloved Isaac by his side, knowing what God had asked him to do. We can imagine how Joseph must have felt in the bottom of that pit after his brothers had mistreated him and shoved him in, and how he must have felt seeing his own brothers sell him into slavery. We can imagine how Naomi must have felt as she buried her husband and both sons. And if we are familiar with those stories, we know that there is a ram in the thicket somewhere, there are better days ahead, or there is a kinsmen redeemer out there. It may not come in the way we like, we may indeed suffer, but God has a plan for us, that, if we trust Him, and lean on Him will work out for our good, maybe not in the way we would like, but in a way that will ultimately bring glory to our God.

His word shows us that we are not guaranteed a lack of suffering, we live in a fallen world, but if we love Him, and put Him first in our lives, He will be there with us through whatever happens in this life. When life seems to be throwing curve-balls, when your world feels like it’s falling apart, look to His word, and see His faithfulness and His love for His people, and trust in Him.