ARE YOU CONFIDENT THAT GOD IS GOOD? A TEST

If you say that you trust that God is good, then I have a test for you.
True or False...

1. If God is good then all that He brings into your life is for your benefit and blessing.
2. All that does come into your life works for good because you know God.
3. Every criticism that you receive, even when false and unkind, is a blessing to you from God.
4. You gladly welcome all criticism as a blessing from God.
5. You know your tendency to resist criticism and therefore pray and ask God to bring you critics to help you overcome this tendency.
6. Since God is good and critics are His blessing to you, you regularly thank God for bringing them to you.
7. Since God is good, you rejoice in the Lord always while receiving criticism, realizing that you are worse than the critics declare.
8. Since critics are a blessing from God to help you see your need to learn to love, you thank your critics for offering their criticism--even when it is not valid--to honor their care for you.

If you trust that God is good then the above will naturally overflows from that trust. Have you been afraid to pray in this way? Are you thinking that God's answer might be out of your control? What does that reveal about your confidence that God is good? Here is a simple step forward in trusting the goodness of God. Will you take it? The Christians around you would be blessed if you did.

"Father in heaven, thank you that you are good in all that comes my way. Thank you that all my critics are a blessing sent from your hand of love to help me see my need to grow in love. Please bring me critics on your schedule as much as you think I need. Sooner is better than later for the sake of my family, friends, and church. Thank you for making Christ to be all my security when the critics come. Amen."

Decades ago an article by AW Tozer brought the above to my attention and I began to pray this way. It is easy and natural for us humans to see our critics as a problem. I suggest that we cannot overcome this problem, but can only suppress it. The good news is that God can overcome it for us. Since beginning to pray this prayer, all my critics have become an answer to prayer. By definition they are no longer a problem for me but rather a blessing to me. What a relief. God is so good! Let's celebrate...even with our critics. 

FYI: This applies to trials as well as critics. Feel free to make that application also.

WHERE IS YOUR SECURITY?

"For in Him [Christ] all the fullness of Diety dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;" -Colossians 2:9-10

Every true Christian is complete in Christ, which means that they lack nothing and nothing can shake their identity in Christ. And since Christ is above all other authority, no authority can take away from that completeness. Neglect, misunderstanding, slander, mistreatment, or worse by anyone else cannot shake that completeness. True? Why then is it so common for us Christians to get impatient, offended, proud, angry, and worse with each other? Why this touchiness and defensiveness if my completeness has nothing to do with me or my critics? The whole issue is about setting your mind on Christ as your completeness. Every bad reaction you have is rooted in distraction, ignorance, or forgetfulness of your identity in Christ.

Are you persuaded that this is true? God loves you and delights to help you learn this lesson of love. All your critics and all your troubles are HIS messengers to help you notice and keep focused on your identity in Christ. The last time you were disagreed with, criticized, mocked, or neglected by a fellow Christian, did you embrace such as grace from God, giving Him thanks for your and your critic's completeness in Christ? Did your critic receive a warm saintly welcome from you and maybe even an invitation to expand on the criticism? Did you embrace such as a good opportunity for YOU to learn more about YOUR own weaknesses? Did you see God's smile of delight on that dear saint WHILE you were being mistreated? Or, did you think in terms of your own rights, and respond defensively? The truth about your completeness in Christ while you are being a jerk to others, is also true of others WHILE they are being jerks to you. True? If you thank God often that this is always true for all Christians, it will be more natural for you to remember it in the heat of the moment.

Practice remembering your security in Christ and watch your reactions change.