Sunday Sermon: A Good Place to Stand
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Text: Nahum 1:7
Series: "Certain Truths for Uncertain Times”
If you think back to your earliest memories of God, chances are they’re connected to that little prayer, which was most likely the first prayer you ever learned: “God is great; God is good. Let us thank Him for our food.” While many people might look at that prayer as childish and immature, I tend to think otherwise. I see it as a beginning point for pondering the greatest mystery in all the universe, which is of course the mystery of God.
When we reflect upon the concept of goodness as something that originates with God, we are asserting that every single one of the benefits and blessings of life stem from that Divine Presence that exists from beyond, that overarching source of well-being, whose very essence is to work in ways that ultimately serve our best interests.
Can you pause this morning to consider a God like that, a God who ultimately always has your best interests in His heart, a God who invites you to come and take your stand with Him, even as you are confronted with things that without God in your life would be sure to overwhelm you?
This morning I have chosen for our text a verse from the prophet Nahum. I do so because of how it offers as simple and succinct an explanation for how we balance our belief in the goodness of God while acknowledging the reality of evil in the world. “The LORD is good,” Nahum says, “a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him.”
The name Nahum means “comfort,” and his very presence on the scene at a time when the evil nation of Assyria was making life difficult for God’s people was God’s way of saying to them, “Things are not always as they seem to be. Evil may appear to be having its way in the present hour, but good will prevail.” “The LORD is good. He is a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him.” Nahum’s prophecy was intended to encourage the people to be confident about God’s refusal to allow the evil of Assyria to continue forever. And sure enough, in the year 601 BC, the capital city of Nineveh fell and with it, the Assyrian Empire crumbled.
So, what does that mean for you this morning, and more importantly, what does it mean for your future? Among other things, it means that you can never draw lasting conclusions from a particular moment in time, especially when that moment may be harsh and difficult. It means that in the face of whatever good or bad may be taking place at a given moment, it is best that we trust that moment to God, believing that He has our best interests at heart, and in His time, God will bring good out of evil, blessing out of misery, and favor out of pain.
Many of you are familiar with the writings of the famous defender of the faith of the last century, C.S. Lewis. In one of his works, he offers a helpful analogy for how we might take our stand in life on God’s goodness, even in the face of trial and tribulation. Lewis invites us to imagine that you been assigned to create an important presentation and that you have labored on that presentation until you have made it perfect. Imagine that in the middle of the night, after you have finished, a sinister person comes behind you and mars that presentation so that it looks nothing like you intended it to be. In Lewis’s words, your presentation has been “deranged,” in the classic sense of that word. What do you do in the face of such “derangement?” Do you give up? Do you give in to the evil that has marred your perfect presentation? If you’re a person of any character, you do not give up. You go back and correct that which is wrong and you “rearrange” everything to how you originally intended it to be.
I think you can see the connection. The book of Genesis is clear as to how in the beginning God’s creation was “very good.” And as the book of Genesis also tells us, when sin entered the picture (a sin by the way for which humans are responsible), God’s good creation became marred so that the evil, pain, and suffering that we must endure reflects the “fallenness” of God’s good creation. But contrary to popular opinion, that’s not the end of the story. The good news is that God has not abandoned His original purposes. In Jesus Christ, God has dealt the forces of evil a mortal blow, and even now God is in the process of “rearranging” everything as He intended to be. And the best news of all, which Nahum was trying to emphasize with his prophecy, is that God does that “rearranging” work through people who trust in His goodness, people like you and me. That’s what Nahum means when he proclaims, “The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him.”
So, what does life look like for those who give themselves over to that promise? Let me offer you three brief applications.
People who trust in the goodness of God are always quick to celebrate God’s favor in their everyday experience. They never take for granted the many positive experiences of life, and they are always careful to attribute those good times to the heart of a good and Benevolent God. Maybe this week you can make a commitment to whisper a word of thanks to God for every good thing that happens for you.
Secondly, people who trust in the goodness of God are always careful to pray for God’s perspective in the face of life’s most difficult moments. They recognize that what we consider to be not so much in our best interests may be something that looks different to God. And so, they pray for God’s perspective in order to be able to see how God might draw near in His mercy and grace to take that difficult experience and use it for our good. If this present moment is a less than pleasant one for you, can you commit yourself to that sort of prayer? Can you pray for God to use that experience to teach you or to prepare you or to strengthen you or to grow you?
And lastly, people who trust in the goodness of God are always looking for ways to be instruments of God’s goodness to those around them who are not so well off. They don’t act as if they are the only people who have something at stake. They are more concerned about what God has at stake and how they can be His hands and His heart in situations where evil seems to have won the day. I’m reminded of something that Mother Teresa once said when someone asked her about the goodness of God when there were starving people around the world. Her response to that very good question was, “If sometimes poor people die of starvation, it’s not because God didn’t care for them, but because you and I didn’t give enough.” This week can you open your eyes to the pain and the suffering that may be happening right around you, and for the glory of God can you offer something in response in God’s name and for God’s glory?
Nancy Spiegelberg is a children’s author. Of her many books, one is titled I’d Like to Ask God. A snippet from that book appeared in a devotional for Our Daily Bread some years ago. The devotional reminds us that though God is big enough to handle all of our questions, at the end of the day God desires us simply to trust in His goodness and to believe He has our best interests at heart. Spiegelberg ends her devotion with this little prayer: “Lord, I crawled across the bareness to you with my empty cup, uncertain in asking any small drop of refreshment. If only I had known you better. I’d have come running with a bucket (“Bibles and Buckets,” Our Daily Bread, 7/10/99).
God has so much to offer to those who will trust Him. Whether you are happy or hurting, run to Him now. He is waiting to receive you. God is waiting for you to come and take your stand with Him, that He may bless you and keep you and do you good all the days of your life.