Introduction to Our Study
Welcome to this wonderful book study by Mimi Wilson and Shelly Volkhardt. My hope for us is that we will take time to sit in the truths of each week’s lesson and allow our lives to be changed. Please read each chapter early in the week so you will have time to reflect on the two concluding parts of each chapter.
- *“Holy Habits” will give us practical ways to respond to the truth of God’s goodness presented in each chapter.
- “Responding to His Word” will allow us to dig deeper into relevant Scriptures and answer pertinent questions to increase our understanding of this truth.
This isn’t a study to rush through. Let’s invite God to search our hearts and show us what we really believe, to teach us His truth, and release us from any lies we may believe and live by. I’m very excited for this study—and I’m very excited to complete it with you.
Our study will be as good as our participants’ comments. The purpose of this blog isn’t to give us ideas about books—instead, this blog is meant to be a community of online friends and companions who can read a book together and share thoughts and responses with each other. So, your comments really do matter. My hope is that you’ll be able to post your comments (either here or our private Facebook group) towards the end of each week. Each week’s chapter will be added to the blog on Monday.
Some Reasons People Don’t Post:
Other’s comments seem so wise, deep and intimidating
This is such a public forum
Not feeling safe or feeling shy
Lack of time to write a thoughtful comment
Not believing that what you have to share is important
Some Great Reasons To Post
You are just as wise and deep as others—you have a lot to contribute
It is public, but private, too as this isn’t a searchable blog site
This is a friendly community—we understand that we’re all at different places in our spiritual journey. We promise not to judge or condemn but to try and understand
Writing can take just a few minutes—and it is important to make time for you to be part of this community
What you have to say will impact the other readers
With that introduction and plea for your participation, let’s get started! My heart is hungry to learn more about God’s goodness. I expect to be changed as we read this book.
Welcome to this study!
Linda
Chapter One: 360 Degrees of Absolute Goodness
My husband and I recently made an umpteenth move—this time from California to New Jersey. Compared to past moves when our kids were still home, or when we moved to Venezuela, Ecuador or back to the States, this has been a very easy move. We are very happy in our new location. Except.
Except is such a powerful word and it is a word I’ve been focusing a lot on. Because, I’m very happy here except for the fact that one of my life-long friends seems to have decided that she is done changing her address book to make room for my new contact information. She isn’t responding to Skype, Facebook, emails and she’s not taking my phone calls. I don’t know what’s up or how to repair our friendship when she is unavailable to me. Our interrupted relationship has been a huge downer for me since we moved and it isn’t getting any easier.
I’ve just re-read our first chapter for the second time. Quotes from these pages challenge my heart’s perspective.
“Why would I sit under a tree and focus on the fruit I cannot have? ….Like Eve, we often look to what we don’t have and decide (many times without realizing it) that God must not be good since we cannot have what we desire” (p. 13).
“Goodness is His essence” (p.15).
“If all mankind had a cup and could dip it into the goodness of God’s character at the same time, our cups would be full and He would not have a drop less of goodness in Him” (p. 17).
“When we don’t pay attention to the goodness of God surrounding us, we starve our belief that God is good…” (p. 17).
“The first step to noticing God’s goodness is opening our eyes and looking for it” (p.18).
Lately, I’ve allowed my focus on what I can’t have to rob me of what God has given me. He is so good.
I hope you will enjoy this week’s reading. Please feel free to reflect in your comments about the” Holy Habits” and any “Responses to His Word” you’d like to share. But, what I’d really like to hear is what you’ve seen this week when you opened your eyes to notice God’s goodness. Would you at least share that with us, please? I know we’ll be greatly encouraged by each other’s observations.
14 comments:
This chapter, ...and this book..., have come at the perfect time. Isn't our kind Father good at that!!
This past week I have struggled with anxiety and fear in regards to my health (details aren't too important). With the ambiguity looming, I struggled. And, more times than I can count I had the thought, "I have resolved that God is good". Resolving. Choosing. Knowing.
I have been struck this week at how many times God has proved His deep, lasting love and goodness in my life. Now, it is time to rely on this... to live in this Truth... to choose to believe it NOW.
A verse in 1 Peter 3 jumped off the page, affirming this heart lesson: "In your heart, set apart Christ as Lord".
Is He or is He not Lord in my heart... over my life, my body, my circumstances. I have concluded this week that HE IS! And, I will resolve to stand firm in the fact that He is good! This isn't empty faith--- NO WAY--- this is faith based on His Word and on His gifts, upon gifts, in my life. Years and years of good fruit, good trees, kind love tell me that He is good.
("Eve was surrounded by 360-degrees of God's abundant goodness" p. 13) So when the enemy comes and whispers questions in my mind I can say, "NOPE!" My God is good!!
"When we live in the circle of God's goodness, it becomes a filter for how we interpret everything in our life-the good and the bad" p. 12
His goodness and faithfulness have become my filter this week and I have found much freedom from fear and anxiety. His TRUE LOVE has indeed cast out fear!
Welcome Stephanie! It is just like our very kind and generous Father to have prepared this book for you and you for this reading! I love how you have resolved to think "God is good." "Resolving, choosing, knowing.... Yea!" I cheer with you that His perfect love has cast out fear--that His goodness and faithfulness have filtered that out for you. That is really a yea God!
Hi Linda,
Just got back from Colorado and am ready to start reading! I'll catch up with you in a day or two...
Reading God's word in Exodus, I was reminded that God has more glory than I can handle (hence, God covering Moses in the cleft of the rock).
Romans 1:21-22 is also mentioned in this chapter:'Although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their foolish hearts were darkened.. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.'" Again, the word glory-which I have heard since a child, but never given much thought..."thanksgiving with honor"...the footnote in my Bible uses the phrase, "God's unique majesty". If glory(and goodness) is a main part of his essence, I believe it must be something He delights in. I think that I have not given God much (any?) glory lately. For me it's time to quit writing and go spend some time honoring His unique majesty!! I'm looking forward to this book journey together!
Dear Diane! Welcome! Can't wait to hear your thoughts on this book. And, Ruby--I wonder what you did after you stopped writing to spend time glorifying our Father God. I hope you were able to have a very special time with Him Welcome to you, too!
I was camped in the Holy Habit part of the book, specifically "resolve that God is good". A friend walked along side me when I was going through a rough spot in life. She challenged me to keep a blessings list; at the end of the day write 5 blessings of that day. As I wrote that list it reminded me how good God is. Another thing I would do is what I call "Godsidences". As I would see my Fathers characteristics(provision,protection, mercy....) I would thank Him that moment.
But...have you heard the phrase if you don't use it you will lose it.
I looked up the word ,habit- an acquired pattern or behavior or customary practice or use or a particular practice.(Webster) In the book Barbi said "Sweet baby,don't leave me,but I have resolved God is good"(pg 20,21). She didn't remember saying these words...not only was it a habit for her but a witness to all who were around her." I can always work on Resolving God is good to keep the pity parties away.
When we live in the circle of God's goodness,it becomes a filter for how we interpet everything in our life good and bad(pg12) Someone shared this with me once( I don't remember who) or if I read it somewhere... Nothing happens to us that was not already filtered throught he Father's hand. Its a great comfort knowing who I belong to and that He is always with me.
Thanks Linda another great choice!
Donna--I'm glad you like the book! And your journal idea at the end of each day is a wonderful habit. I can see keeping a special journal beside my bed just for that purpose. If I really did that, I think I'd sleep better!
I'm at a retreat this week. The Lord is so good! I am looking forward to reading more in this book. It was good to read about his goodness here and then to have it reiterated by the retreat speaker in a different way. God is good and his glory is amazing. We were made to praise God and when we do, even when we are going through hard things, we give him glory.
This week I have seen the goodness of the Lord in renewing old friendships and in making new ones. I also have been trying to write down things that I am thankful for each day. It really does help to remind me how faithful and loving God is.
...Like Eve, we often look to what we don't have and decide that God must not be good since we cannot have what we desire. (p. 13)
So many times this past year I have fought with God on this very issue. I wrote this back in January....
"So my struggle as of late...why doesn’t God give us what we want? Why does it always feel like He is withholding from us? Isn’t He the giver of all good gifts?
These questions seem like good ones until you look at the flip side of the coin. Do we ever ask, Why doesn’t God give us what we really deserve? What if the things He is withholding would harm us or cause us more difficulties? Do we still want them? What if God allows things we don’t want (e.g. illnesses, financial woes, etc)? Do we then also say that He is withholding from us?
Do we believe He is loving? Trustworthy? Righteous? Sovereign?
Life is a struggle. A battle. A walk of faith. It is also a joy.
So to fight against the desires of my flesh (which remain so very strong), I began to think of things that I want to see happen this year. I want:
*to see the hand of God moving in the lives of those around me
*to know that my life is making a difference
*to understand in the depth of my being that Jesus loves me
*to live my life in such a way that it is always being poured out as a drink offering
*to use the gifting and talents in me to build up the Kingdom of God
*to hold the Word of God in my heart and allow the Light to shine out of me
*to experience a greater use of my life in the next 30-40 years than in the first"
yes....Learning to trust in His goodness. A path. A long obedience.
Hi, Lynn and Carla. Welcome! "It really does help to be reminded." That's what Lynn said and then Carla made a list of what she really wants--focusing on what is really important to us. It is amazing what these two disciplines will do for us when we stop and really reflect rather than just live in the moment with our desires and disappointments. Taking the path and being disciplined are great choices for us to make! My question for myself--when I know this to be true, why don't I always choose it?
PART 1
I just attended the WOTH Furlough Retreat and heard about this book club there. My name is Lisa Cash and we have been in Japan for 8 years now, but we're not with a sending agency. We're tentmakers, I guess, so I am really encouraged that I can connect with other Christian missionaries through WOTH. I love to read and I love to write, so this is right up my alley. And I wrote so much I have to divide up my post (Oops!), so sorry about that. But I need to get all of this OUT. I am looking forward to getting to know you ladies who are doing this too. Okay, so here were some of my thoughts from Chapter 1. I actually just answered the questions at the end of the chapter, I guess...
1) Ever since I came to know the Lord, I knew that He was good--it was evident in the way that He radically saved me, walked me through the fires of my turbulent home life as a teenager, and then transplanted me into "the blessed life," giving me a tender, godly husband, 4 beautiful children, and fulfilling our crazy dream to become "missionaries" in a 10/40 country in my mid-twenties. I've experienced a whirlwind of goodness in my short 33 years. It's impossibel for me to reflect on my life in Him (and even before Him, how He was working everything together to draw me into Him) and NOT see His goodness in capital letters. But still I struggle with it, not in the big things, not in retrospect, but in the present, in the little things--the daily mess of life. And actually, I've realized over the years that I'm fully confident that He has nothing but goodness for OTHERS, but sometimes I doubt His good will toward ME. Isn't that awful? After everything He's done? Argh...I think I struggle on the hard days to believe and to live like His eye is on me in the present.
2) Again, I see His goodness in my life just all over the place, lavished upon me absolutely unreasonably. I came from a family of drunks and cheaters and divorcees and rapists and abusers. But He got me through those years, those fires, without even the scent of smoke on me. He plucked me out of that fiery furnace and gave me a place of honor that I didn't deserve. He really started showing off when He gave me a fairy tale Elizabeth Elliot-style love story, and then turning ME (sinful, wrethced ME?) into a missionary. Truly in my infinite weakness, He has proven Himself to be perfectly good and glorious over and over again. I have NO logical reason to doubt His goodness.
PART 2
3) As I mentioned earlier, we live in Japan. And we were there during the big earthquake in March. Shortly after the earthquake, at the advice of the U.S. government and at the command of my husband, I evacuated with our four young children back to the States, though we were intending on coming to the States in June. The last couple of years have been indescribably difficult, crushing, for me as a "missionary" in Japan. I don't mean to sound whiny, and I know that plenty of you live in cultures like this, or even worse than this, but in Japan, for a woman and a missionary, I just feel so pressed down, so oppressed. And the last couple of years, this cloud of depression/oppression has just consumed me. So when the earthquake hit, and everything went nuts over there, I just had to get out. I was shutting down before the earthquake, but after it hit, I just completely lost it. And when I left, a LOT of people were upset. They felt that as a missionary, I should have stayed. But there was a lot more going on than they knew, and we know we did the right thing for our family. All that being said, the whole situation is still a HUGE mess that we're not sure we'll be able to resolve when we return there in a few weeks. We may not be welcome back in our Japanese church, and we have already been told that we will not be allowed to hold any leadership positions there anymore because of our decision. So I'm gonna keep it real here. In the present, it's REALLY hard for me to see His goodness in the situation, except that it got me home, where I was able to get healthy mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. But that sounds awfully egocentric. I know that in retrospect I will see His goodness even in that tragedy, but right now I'm still in the earthquake, so to speak, and all I can see at the moment is rubble.
4) According to this Scripture, God is gracious, good, merciful, glorious, and He is GOD!
5) Exodus 33:19 really sticks out to me: He is gracious to whom He chooses, and shows mercy to whom He chooses. To me, that's one of the most glorious things about Him, his "Godness." Though it may make us uncomfortable, it is u it could ultimately His call who He is gracious to and to whom he SHOWS His mercy. I mean, His grace and mercy are evident everywhere, but not everyone is SHOWN His grace and mercy. I was certainly one of those who most might have said shouldn't have deserved the grace and mercy He showed me; sometimes I think it must confound people just how good God has been to me because my heart is so warward and my personality so seemingly dysfuntional sometimes. And yet He has indeed illuminated Himself to me and favored me ridiculously. And yet I see other people whom we would think they have all the blessings in the world bestowed upon them, yet they don't get it. They don't see that it's all Him. It is HIM who reveals Himself to us; it's not that I have better eyes. And in addition, this Scripture indicates that it is not ours to even question why He chooses whom He chooses, but rather to glory in His goodness and in His "Godness" and trust that He is the all-wise King.
PART 3
6) For me, I feel like He has instructed me to reflect on what he has already done in my life and to "fill an omer of it," to write it down. When I am in these hard seasons, I intentionally sit down and write about the crazy-wonderful things He has done for me over the years, and it helps me to trust Him in the present. Doing this is incredibly cathartic and spiritually energizing for me, telling my History.
7) How funny, I was just searching for that "wandering heart" reference a few questions back. I most certainly have a wandering heart. When I'm in the middle of a little crisis, my tendency so often is to fall back on my own instincts, rarely to call out to Him for wisdom or help. In the big things, I think I usually call to Him first, but who doesn? Big whoops. Thse two little lines from that beautiful hymn shall be my prayerful plea in these coming difficult weeks as we prepare to return to Japan on August 19th: "Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to Thee."
8) Because I am a nerd, I turned this prayer into a poem:
Wonderful Father, hear my plea
and bind my wayward heart to Thee.
Help me, Lord, to breathe You in,
Inhale your goodness deep within.
Let me taste Your Word, my God,
honey dripping from my lips.
Let me feel your healing balm
applied to weary-walking hips.
And may Your majesty I see
and revel deeply, even glee,
in every wonder You have made--
mini-miracles every day.
And Lord give me the ears to hear
the songs that You sing over me.
And after all, make my voice strong
To echo praises back to Thee
every day, my whole life long.
Lisa...I love your thoughts--thank you for sharing your prayerful poem! Can't wait to read more...
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