When I opened by BibleWorks software this morning to get started on pulling my sermon notes together for Sunday, I was greeted, as usual, by a pop-up with Bagster’s Daily Light and was very encouraged by this selection of Scriptures. Bagster titled today’s Daily Light reading, “Think upon me, my God, for good”. We believers do not receive blessing from God because of the power of our faith. Faith itself is reliance on God’s power once we have come to know our own weakness and need for Him. But, as Peter reminds us, our infant-like dependence on God cannot be real and sincere unless somewhere underneath our dependence on God is a settled confidence that God is good and that His goodness is for us.
"Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation–if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good." (1Pe 2:2-3 ESV)
This kind of trust that God is good and that His goodness is benevolent for us and toward us is implicit in Peter’s promise that if we have once tasted the Lord’s goodness (in hearing and believing the Gospel), we will find the nourishment our souls need to grow and persevere until we reach the goal of our salvation. Notice, though, that our growth and spiritual life does not depend on us but is the result of what God provides for us! The command in 1 Peter 2:2 is to “long for the pure spiritual milk”, the nourishment of the Spirit through the Bible, God’s Word, which feeds us and causes our spiritual growth. I find, in my life however, that it is difficult to long for something when I have little appetite for it. Much of the time I have little or no appetite for the Bible and therefore it seems artificial and forced to try and make myself “long for the pure spiritual milk”. That is, until I am reminded of God’s goodness “for” me. This reminder sparks my hope in God. My hope in God kindles my sense of need for God. My sense of need for God fires up my appetite for His Word. And the Word of God satisfies my longing. So here, to encourage you this day to remember God’s goodness for you, is this reading from Bagster’s Daily Light:
Think upon me, my God, for good.
"Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people." (Nehemiah 5:19 ESV)
""Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the LORD, "I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown."
"yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant." (Ezekiel 16:60 ESV)
""For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place." (Jeremiah 29:10 ESV)
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11 ESV)
"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:9 ESV)
""As for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause," (Job 5:8 ESV)
"who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number:" (Job 5:9 ESV)
"You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told." (Psalm 40:5 ESV)
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