You Have It All

A Catalogue of Goodness

During a conversation with a friend recently I found myself saying, “I have it all”. I think I surprised us both.

We were talking about answers to prayer and how we can often miss what God gives us because the picture in our heads of what His answer should look like doesn't match what things look like when His answer actually comes.

In that moment of clarity, my mouth confessed what the Holy Spirit was showing me. You have it all. That went a step beyond the realisation that dawned on me some time ago that my prayers over the last decade for stability, security and safety in an unstable, insecure and unsafe position, had been met and continues to be met. Unfortunately, I hadn't seen it for years because it didn't look like I thought it would look and it didn't feel how I expected it to feel. I'd lived in a hollow carved out by feelings of deficit, when in a moment, God revealed my reality in Him. I have it all.

I used to think, ‘when God has brought the breakthrough that makes my life look whole, I'll feel stable, secure and safe. People will see it and I'll be able to tell a complete story from start to finish. Then I’ll know God has acknowledged me. Then I’ll know He’s not punishing me but He loves me’.

The wrong, but most often noted thought when people are looking for God is, "what good has God done for me?' When things go wrong, or when they're hard, or we don't understand, we question the existence of God, the nature of God or the goodness of God. But God is sovereign over all of His creation, His nature is good and His goodness is based on His faithfulness, no matter what.

I’m so grateful God’s faithfulness has shown me the truth of my desperately failed thinking. Despite remaining in a position I used to find lacking and frustrating and sometimes scary, I can see He has met my prayers with a constancy that has been unchanging for years. Just because my position hasn't changed in the way I'd hoped, it doesn't mean my answers to prayers are based on change. It doesn’t mean I am being punished. It doesn’t mean I’m not good enough. It doesn’t mean I’m less loved, less successful or less blessed than others.

Having survived through the fire of my last two decades, I’m content and feel His abiding love. I’ve become able to meet disruption and perceived danger head on and even love the limitations of how my life looks because God showed me, it’s not burdensome. He is able to part the waters for me in all circumstances so where I am now is where He will use me now.

I've learned to follow Him through frightening situations; trust Him through disappointments; acknowledge Him through surprising turns; learn of Him when I don't understand; give to others when I've been full and receive from others when I've been empty. Ultimately, He is to me, first, last and always.

God’s presence goes with me so I’m not concerned with other people’s expectations of me. I’m ok with not seeming ‘enough’ to others, if that's the case, or 'too much' to some, as the case may be, and I’ve repented for my critique of other people as well. No split seams. No plasters or copy-cat-cut-outs. No broken pottery that I’m still looking for the chipped pieces to glue back together. Just a fresh sheet of paper waiting to be sketched on each day and given away.

During a separate conversation with another friend, we discovered God had been teaching us both to not worry about “tomorrow". He had been asking us both to thank Him for what He provides each day as we go and to be unafraid. Our situations and experiences are different, but we are experiencing the same message.

Learn to be relaxed about living in the moment with God.

When we are kept in Christ Jesus, we can be sure He knows what we need even before we do. He goes ahead of us even while we’re experiencing the uncertainty of the moment and sending up SOS prayers. Sometimes He will cause us to make a phone call we don’t want to make, send an email that seems risky, or stand our ground when we feel caged. We might not feel God’s there in those moments but He is. He causes us to do things in order to work out what He is working out. We’re part of the game, not standing on the sidelines, watching. So, even as we're relaxed, we need to remain watchful for how we're being called to participate.

If you’re experiencing fear or uncertainty in your today and the tomorrows that are coming, take these scriptures to heart that my friend and I shared with each other, and put together a catalogue of goodness, declaring that God goes before us and sweeps us up from behind.

Psalm 139:17-18 (TLB)

How precious it is, Lord, to realize that you are thinking about me constantly! I can’t even count how many times a day your thoughts turn toward me. And when I waken in the morning, you are still thinking of me!

Matthew 10:30-31 (AMP)

But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered [for the Father is sovereign and has complete knowledge]. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.

Matthew 6:6,8,11,31-34 (NIV)

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you…. your Father knows what you need before you ask him…. Give us today our daily bread…. So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Psalm 145:15,17,21 (NLT)

The eyes of all look to you in hope; you give them their food as they need it…. The Lord is righteous in everything he does; he is filled with kindness…. I will praise the Lord, and may everyone on earth bless his holy name forever and ever.

We don’t need to see the provision today that we need to receive by tomorrow because we can trust He sees and has already gone ahead of us. Our answer to prayer doesn’t need to arrive before we need it. We can be relaxed in the knowledge that He knows and He will do what we cannot. He isn't rushed but He doesn't let us down.

You can say you have it all because God hears and provides as you go. He won't leave you in need. Just understand your expectations may need to be reshuffled.

As we traverse bumpy roads, we learn to remain steadfast. We learn our lessons over every bump, though it be uncomfortable. Our heart position needs to be one of praise. Our habits need to be clean. Our thoughts need to reflect assurance in God’s goodness and ability. There is an immediacy in what takes place and the way God works.

John 10:14 (NCV)

“I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and my sheep know me,

John 11:10 (NCV)

if anyone walks at night, he stumbles because there is no light to help him see.”

John 12:46 (NCV)

I have come as light into the world so that whoever believes in me would not stay in darkness.

When the LORD speaks, prompts, or moves us, we can move forward in confident assurance that we have it all. Our needs will be met in Him. Our anxieties will be dealt with justly. Our hopes will be realised because He fulfils His promises. He is faithful and He will do it.