“Thank you God for all you have brought me out of,” I told the Lord as I prayed briefly, half asleep, half awake, having just taken ministry disabled doggy Gracie out for a very short early morning walk. Then His Spirit compelled me to get off my knees and go write this message.
When God brings you out of something, do you thank Him? When God brings you out of something, do you remember down the road that He brought you out? Or do you hurry forward with your life and forget to acknowledge the goodness of God? And when times passes, do you forget to look back and see and acknowledge and rejoice over the goodness of God in bringing you out? Or do you rush ahead with more prayers asking God to do this and that and the other forgetting or taking for granted what in His amazing love, mercy, grace, and goodness He has already done? And, friend, do you tell others of the goodness of God in how He brought you out of whatever it was He delivered you from?
When I think about it, I am utterly astounded at how much God has brought me out of in my life both before I believed in Him and since I came to believe in Him. Most of all, He brought me out of the darkness of being dead in my sins and being headed for eternity in hell and the lake of fire. This He brings us out of when we turn from our sins, believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and in His death and resurrection, and truly commit our hearts and lives to God and His ways and to living henceforth for Him and no longer for us according to the world’s ways.
“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;” 1 Peter 2:9
“And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,” Colossians 2:13
Is this all? Oh, but this is just the beginning. In my own story, God has brought me out of so much it is unfathomable. Praising Him forever wouldn’t be enough! God has brought me out of danger, lack of safety, depression, post traumatic stress disorder, bad decisions, unhealthy situations, hard stuff, self-mutilation, years of contemplating killing myself, hopelessness, unhealthy relationships, grief I thought would never pass, having no sense of purpose, treating people badly, an eating disorder, alcoholism, staying in places I shouldn’t have stayed, sickness, and on and on. Truth is sometimes I thanked Him. Sometimes I did not. Sometimes I have thanked Him since. Sometimes I have forgotten His goodness in what He did in bringing me out. I have such a long way to go in praising the Lord and telling others about the goodness of God in bringing me out. Of the Lord so graciously and generously and amazingly and powerfully delivering me.
So, friend, where do you stand when it comes to meditating on, reflecting on, acknowledging, being joyful over, being thankful to God for, and telling others of the goodness of God in bringing you out?
Let this message be a reminder for you and for me and for anyone the Lord leads to it to praise the Lord for bringing us out and for telling others as the Lord so leads us about how good is our God who has delivered us – time and time again! Oh, hallelujah, AMEN!
“Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy, And gathered out of the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way; They found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, Their soul fainted in them. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, And He delivered them out of their distresses. And He led them forth by the right way, That they might go to a city for a dwelling place. Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He satisfies the longing soul, And fills the hungry soul with goodness. Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, Bound in affliction and irons— Because they rebelled against the words of God, And despised the counsel of the Most High, Therefore He brought down their heart with labor; They fell down, and there was none to help. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, And He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, And broke their chains in pieces. Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men!” Psalm 107:1-15
I encourage you to read the whole of Psalm 107 – and to read and live by the Bible each and every day!