The Goodness of God

Scott McFarland
08/06/23 - Sun AM Worship

Scripture Reading: James 1:16-18

God for the Good Things

It’s good to be back! Two weeks of Army training has ended and I’m so glad to be back with my family and you all. Having to leave again after a relatively short time home was difficult. Even though I knew it wasn’t going to be as long as my first go around, it hurt to leave again. Being 1,000 miles away from home makes you appreciate what you have, which leads me to our bulletin article thought this morning…

Both of the Sundays we were gone, we were unable to have church service due to the training schedule, so one of the other guys in my platoon (who is also a minister, ironically!) shared some Scripture with the men in our unit after our training was over on Sundays. I shared some thoughts from James 1:17 which says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” Without boring you with details, during the course of our training we had had some events play out in our favor that significantly helped morale. I discussed these events and talked about the God who had blessed us with them. Not everyone in my platoon is a Christian, of course, but through our time together in Scripture I encouraged the guys to think about where the good things in our life come from and to be grateful to the God who gave them to us.

This all got me thinking…am I grateful for the good things in my life? So often, I look around at what isn’t where I want it to be. I’m a perfectionist by nature, which often leads me to think about what’s not right instead of what is. These last two weeks I have been thinking about how much I have to be thankful for, how much we all have to be thankful for. Here are a few statistics…about 10% of the world goes to be hungry each night; about 6% of the world is unemployed; 34% of the world has never gone to school past age 11. Although we all come from different backgrounds, I’d be willing to bet that most of us have food, work, and education. Many of us probably have an abundance of all three. When was the last time you stopped to think about what you have and to thank the Creator who blessed you with it? We are so blessed, especially in this country—don’t forget to thank the One who gave it to you!

Scott McFarland