What’s the Good Word?

A joyful “Good Morning”,

“Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs it down,” exclaims Solomon in Proverbs 12:25, “but a good word makes it glad.”

So, what’s the good word?  Where shall we find the answer – the “good word” – that thwarts Satan’s efforts to ensnare our souls with anxiety and diminish our joy in the Lord?

“I know, O LORD, that a man’s way is not in himself,” mused Jeremiah (10:23), “nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps.” “Help, LORD,” cried David in Psalm 12:1, “for the godly man ceases to be, for the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. They speak falsehood to one another; with flattering lips and with a double heart they speak.”

God responds in verse 5, “‘Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy, now I will arise,’ says the LORD; ‘I will set him in the safety for which he longs’.”

Then comes the declaration in verse 6, 

“The words of the LORD are pure words;
As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.

“You, O LORD, will keep them;”
You will preserve him from this generation forever.”

Here is where we find the “good word,” in “the words of the Lord.”  So the psalmist exclaims, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. . . . You are my hiding place and my shield; I wait for Your word”; and prays,“Sustain me according to Your word, that I may live; and do not let me be ashamed of my hope. Uphold me that I may be safe, that I may have regard for Your statutes continually” (119:105,114, 116-117).

And in the New Testament, Peter reminds us that God’s

“divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust” (2 Peter 1:3-4). 

Jesus’ words in John 14:1, are as much for you and me today as they were for the disciples then: “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.” 

May God assure every aspect of your heart – your mind, your will, and your emotions – that you have everything you need in Christ for the present distress and any that might arise in your future (Philippians 4:12-13). “My God,” exclaims our beloved apostle Paul, “will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).

“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Just as it is written,

            “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG;
            WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.”

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35-39).

“Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Together in Christ,

Pastor Ryne