EquipU Online Library

“Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.” (Psalm 116:5)

When God flooded the whole wide world, He was being fair.

When God told Abraham to sacrifice his one and only son Isaac, He was being fair.

When God sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross, He was being fair.

In the Hebrew language, another word for “fair” is righteous – a word used often to describe God. Psalm 11:7 begins, “For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness.”

Truth is, God is fair. God is always fair.

When your life is good, God is fair. When you feel sad, God is fair. When you make your parents happy, God is fair. When you fail a test, God is still fair. He knows about your problems even before you pray. God allows you to face your hard times, as well as your good times – not because God is unfair or unloving – but because He is righteous. Everything God does is right, because it is God Who does it.

Eight years ago, a man named Steve was killed in a car accident. The accident happened on Steve’s first wedding anniversary. Steve had a wife. He had parents. He had a little sister. When he was killed so unexpectedly, Steve left behind many family and friends who were very sad and wondering if God was really being fair!

Why does God allow bad things to happen? Why does it often seem like God Himself causes tragic things to happen? Isn’t God a loving God? Isn’t God an all-powerful God? Couldn’t He make it so only happy things happen? Couldn’t He take away all the bad things? Maybe you have asked that same question about something hard in your life.

The answer is simple, even if it is not simple to understand or simple to get used to. The answer is this: God allows bad things to happen for the same reason He allows good things to happen to us – for His great glory and for our greatest good. We do not deserve good and wonderful lives, but God in His lovingkindness can look ahead and see what is ultimately best for us, and He works those things out, for His own glory and for our own good. He never makes mistakes, because He is God. God wants what is best for our lives – and that is fair.

God cannot be unfair because God cannot be wrong.

My Response:
» Am I having a hard time accepting something that God is doing in my life right now?
» How can I change my heart responses and my words and actions to show that I am trusting a perfect God Who never makes mistakes?

“Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear.” (Isaiah 59:1)

Imagine spending an entire day with a tape recorder strapped to your back so everything you said could be recorded. If you argued with your mom, it would be on the tape. If you lied, your lie would be recorded on there, too. If you complained, those words would also become part of the tape.

If there really were a tape recorder with you all day, would you think twice before speaking?

Well, guess what! You are heard by something (Someone!) far more powerful than any tape recorder. God hears everything you say – which can be a good thing, or a scary thing.

When you are upset or frightened, and you call out for help, God hears you. Psalm 34:17 says, “The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.” You can be sure that God will always hear you and take care of you. Even above the noise of a crowd, or even when you are alone, or even when you “call out” silently, your voice can be heard by God.

You can also be sure that God hears you when you sin. Every lie, every mean thing, every insult you say is heard by the God of Heaven. God is omniscient – which means that God knows everything. That is how great our God is! Nothing is hidden from Him.

What would it be like to spend a day with a tape recorder on your back? You may never know. (Let’s hope you never know!) But you can know for sure that you do have a God who is listening – so be careful what you say!

God hears more than just our prayers – He hears everything.

My Response:
» Do I think carefully before I speak?
» How can I show with my words that I believe God is omniscient (knows everything) and that He also hears everything?

“I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.” (Psalm 4:8)

For many nights after the terrorists’ attacks on the World Trade towers, Leah used to lie awake for hours, because she was afraid. As soon as she snuggled under the covers in the darkness of her room, Leah imagined she was on one of those planes, and she could “see” the terrorists’ angry, hateful faces glaring at her. She just could not get them out of her mind.

After several sleepless nights, it finally occurred to Leah that she did not need to carry her burden of fear all by herself! She prayed to God that He would help her to trust Him with her future, and she prayed that He would take away her fears about the terrorists. It was comforting to leave her fright and worry at the feet of Jesus, knowing that He would be her Protector. Nothing in the world could happen without Him allowing it.

Sometimes we all have feelings of fear. But when we fight away our fear with God’s Word as our sword, we can be comforted, and we can rest.

God is in control of everything that happens in the world, and we can trust Him with our fears .

My Response:
» Do I have fears that I need to trust God with?

“He delivered me because He delighted in me.” (Psalm 18:19b; 2 Samuel 22:20b)

When Arouna was a small boy, he was very, very sick. Some medical missionaries wanted to take him to a big-city hospital, but his parents did not have enough money and could not let him go there. So Arouna got sicker and weaker as time went by. He had to be put in a small hospital that was run by the Tanzanian government. There, he did not have very good medical care, but it was better than no medical care at all. Arouna kept getting sicker and weaker, and his suffering became more and more painful and dangerous.

One day, the doctor told Arouna’s parents that he would need a blood transfusion. Arouna’s father had the same type of blood as Arouna had. The doctor asked Arouna’s father if he would be willing to give some of his blood, and he explained that Arouna would probably die very soon if he did not have a transfusion for the blood he needed.

Arouna’s father was a little scared, because he had never given blood before, and he was afraid that losing his blood would make him weak for the rest of his life. But he loved Arouna very much, and he had been too poor to pay for Arouna to get better in a nicer hospital. So this was something Arouna’s father could do for him – he could give him some of his blood.

Because of his father’s willing sacrifice, Arouna was able to get better. His father was fine again after a few hours, and Arouna was almost completely healthy again after only a few more weeks in the hospital. The blood transfusion with his father’s blood was what saved little Arouna’s life. And why was his father able to follow through with the blood transfusion? Because his affection for his little boy was far greater than his fear and concern for himself.

After the LORD had given King David many victories and brought him through many hard trials, King David sang a song to the LORD (in 2 Samuel 22), and he sang about why God delivered him out of danger. He said, “He delivered me because He delighted in me.” The song is recorded again in Psalm 18, and all of it is a wonderful song. But those words are especially amazing, if you think about it. The God of the universe, Who is eternally perfect and has no limitations – that same God delights in His people. In spite of their sinfulness and their weaknesses, God sets His affection on human beings. He chooses to love them and delights in their safety and well-being – even when they do not delight in Him, and even though they never could delight in Him as much as He does in them. He delivers them because He delights in them.

God delivers His people out of bondage and slavery. He rescues them out of dangerous situations. Why? Well, according to this God-inspired song, at least one reason why is this: He delivers them because He delights in them. What a gracious and loving God!

In His graciousness and love, God chooses to delight in His people.

My Response:
» Do I live my life with the awareness that God is aware of me – my thoughts, my words, my actions?
» Do I remind myself of the Bible truth that God delights in those who trust in Him?
» How does it change my responses when I think of God delighting in me?

“And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves: for to morrow the LORD will do wonders among you.” (Joshua 3:5)

Did you know that there are said to have been “Seven Wonders of the Ancient World”? They were: The Great Pyramid of Giza (in Egypt), the Hanging Gardens of Babylon (in Iraq), the Temple of Artemis (in Turkey), the Statue of Zeus at Olympia (in Greece), the Mausoleum of Maussollos (in Turkey), Colossus of Rhodes (in Greece), and the Lighthouse of Alexandria (in Egypt). The only one of these wonders that has not yet been destroyed (by earthquakes or fires) is the Great Pyramid in Egypt. If you wanted to see one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, you would have to go all the way to the continent of Africa!

There are also Seven Wonders of the Natural World, and Seven Wonders of the Modern World. Human beings like to make lists of unique, amazing things around them. All of these “wonders” are called “wonders” because they are unusual and hard to believe. It is difficult for us to imagine the amount of work and planning that must have gone into making a monument as large and long-standing as the Great Pyramid of Giza. To stand in front of it, or to reach out and touch it with our hands – this structure that was built over 2000 years before Christ was born! That would be something very special. We would probably look up in wonder and awe at the Great Pyramid.

When the LORD explained to Joshua how He was planning to bring the children of Israel over the Jordan River and how He planned to help them conquer the wicked people living on the land there, Joshua understood that the LORD was going to fight for them and do great miracles for them. He was right. God was preparing to do great wonders on behalf of this group of people. They were not a large nation (in comparison to the nations they were fighting, their armies were small). They were not trained soldiers. And there were many things they could not do on their own – like crossing rushing rivers without drowning or losing all their belongings.

God told Joshua to lead the people across the Jordan River, and He told him how to do it. The evening before the crossing, Joshua got up in front of all the people. He told them they needed to sanctify themselves (consecrate, purify, prepare themselves spiritually), because the LORD was going to do great wonders for them!

How would you have felt if you were an Israelite the next day? What if you waited in a crowd and watched the priests set their feet in the river’s current? What if you were able to see the waters start to pile up into a giant heap? What would it have felt like to walk across the riverbed on dry ground while God Himself – the same God Who created the universe and you yourself – held back the entire river? Surely you would agree with your leader Joshua: The LORD was doing wonders for you.

One reason the Old Testament tells us stories like this one is to remind us that the God Who created the world, and the God of the Israelites, and the God of all the prophets and poets and kings – He is the same God we have today. The God of the Bible is a wonder-working God. His wonders are more numerous and more marvelous than anything ever thought of or created by mankind. What a good and great Creator-Redeemer we have!

The God of the Bible is a wonder-working God.

My Response:
» Do I believe the stories I read in the Bible about God’s greatness and goodness?
» Do I prepare myself spiritually when I am praying for the LORD to do great works?
» How can I magnify the goodness and greatness of my God in front of other people?