BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

is good. God knows the di erence between good and bad! And because He Himself is good, it's His nature to pour out His goodness on all who will receive it. He confi rms it through scripture after scripture. For instance, the book of Psalms says: "Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; Which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!" (Psalm 31:19). "O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack, and su er hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing" (Psalm 34:8–10). "Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnifi ed, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant" (Psalm 35:27). "The LORD is gracious…" or disposed to show favor. He is "full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.... He will fulfi l the desire of them that fear him…" (Psalm 145:8–9, 19). Notice that according to those verses, God considers it good for His people to prosper and have abundance. So much so, that He has already laid up for us all the good things we could ever need or desire. He has them all ready for us. What's more, we don't have to wait until we get to heaven to enjoy them. We can receive of the abundant goodness God has stored up for us while we're still here on earth. Developing Our Capacity To Receive Years ago, I came across a book by a Jewish Rabbi who had become a Christian. Because of his Jewish background and his extensive study of the Old Testament, He had great insight into what Psalm 31 says about God's great goodness and all He has laid up for those who trust Him. Expounding on it in his book, he wrote the following: "Good is that attribute of God whereby He loveth to communicate to all who can or will receive it all good. He Himself is the fullness of good, the creator of all good, not in one way, not in one kind of goodness only, but absolutely, without beginning, without limit, without measure…He possesses and embraces all excellence, all perfection, all blessedness, all good. "This good He bestows on all and each according to the capacity of each to receive it. Nor is there any limit to His giving, save His creatures' capacity to receiving which also is a good gift from Him." This is absolutely scriptural. There truly is no limit to God's giving except our capacity to receive. Where do we get the capacity to receive? From God's Word! "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17), and faith is what enables us to receive from Him. So, we increase our capacity to receive by fi nding out what He said in His Word and believing it enough to act on it. By putting Him and His Word fi rst in our lives and doing things His way. This is the plan Jesus laid out in Matthew 6. There, after telling us several times not to worry about the natural things we need such B V O V : 2 9 God considers it good for His people to prosper and have abundance. There truly is no limit to God's giving except our capacity to receive." "

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