Thoughts that have come from various quotes taken
from the book, "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim Based Society"
by John H. Hovis. Click here to link directly to
the audio file.**********
"Isn’t it so easy to thank God for his “goodness” when things are going our way? Am I as willing to thank God for His goodness when things are going badly?"
As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 93.
It's easy to love the lovable isn't it? Let me show what I mean by that with a little hypothetical.
Let's I was a total stranger to you and despite not knowing you at all I decided to constantly pour good things into your life. After a couple times of me randomly leaving you with something you find pleasing and useful, I bet you'd want me around a lot - wouldn't you? The more I was to pour into your life the better you'd probably want get to know me. After some time of being good to you I'd be willing to bet that you would be in a position to grow in relationship with me that might have some connection to the word love.
Now, consider the opposite for a second. What if I was that same stranger above who showed up in your life and never deposited any goodness for you to enjoy. What if I actually created the kinds of drama in your life that tend to rob you of your worldly peace? Wouldn't you find it difficult to want to be around me? Do you think the same kind of loving relationship I presented before might be the result if I continually did things to bring you down? If you are like any normal human being you would find the first person I describe so much easier to love than the second.
That's what I mean when I said earlier that the lovable are just easier to love than the others that rubs us the wrong way. Although I don't find this truth to be terribly convicting, I do believe that the ease in which we love the lovable reveals something important about our misguided view of love that might just help usher in victim thinking from time to time.
I'm starting to realize love isn't suppose to be based on what we might be able to get out of those we come into relationship with. Love is suppose to be about giving and not receiving. Yet, as pointed out from the little hypothetical above, humans can be pretty quick to have mixed motives when relationship and love are concerned.
It is so easy to love God when He is answering our prayers in ways that perfectly meets our needs. We want the proof of goodies from God to prove that He is good. It's also very easy to trust what God says about our lives and about our identity when His goodness is being poured out on us. It is when God's goodness doesn't look all that good to us that the issues of trust and love can really take a serious turn.
One of the most challenging obstacles to living out the status of the victor God has called us to is doubting God's goodness. When bad things come our way it is so easy to think that God might not be for us, in other words, maybe He isn't a loving Gor or maybe I'm not a lovable person. When we look around and see others receiving good things, the very same good things that seem to be missing in our lives, our victor status can be tainted badly by victim thinking.
I love what today's Bible reading says on the subject.
I will praise the Lord no matter what happens. I will constantly speak of his glories and grace. I will boast of all his kindness to me. Let all who are discouraged take heart. Let us praise the Lord together and exalt his name. Psalm 34:1-3 (THE LIVING BIBLE)
No matter what happens, the psalmist says, I will praise the Lord. I believe our praise for God has its foundation on the fact that God is good. We don't go out of our way to praise the bad in this world - nor should we! It is the good, the honorable, the decent, the righteous, the humble, the overcomer, the honest and the virtuous that are deserving of our praise. That's who God is even though things in this world can work in ways that might make us want to consider that God's goodness isn't something that can be trusted.
Victim thinking will always be the result if we live in the fantasy that we can consistently accurately define good in ways that prove God's goodness. Sometimes things happen to us that work to victimize us, that's just a fact. Satan wants us to believe that, because of bad things in our lives, we should doubt and maybe even reject the love of God since we can't trust His goodness. It is when we give into our definitions of good to prove God's goodness over and over again that victim thinking will make it such that rejecting God's love is the least of our worries here on earth.
I love the antidote to this situation from today's reading. We are instructed to remember and to speak. Remember all the times of good in your life and attribute that goodness to this good God. It isn't that we are to prove God's goodness by comparing the number of good times He provide against the bad that has happened. His goodness isn't something that has to be weighed out on a scale. His goodness is there all the time whether we have good times in our life or not. Holding onto this fact is the only way we can live our this calling of being a victor that God has paid such a high price to give to us.
When that particular piece of bad news hits in your life today remember God is a good God. Of course that bad thing you might be experiencing is victimizing you in so many different ways. But, that fact does not mean that God's goodness can or should ever come into question. I don't know why that bad thing is happening but I just have to believe that it is part of a good plan from a good God that calls me His child. Hold on to this truth and proclaim His goodness in the face of the evil that is working so hard to get you to doubt who you are and who this God is in your life.
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