GOD'S SMILE IS FULL OF GOODNESS

TUESDAY 12 APRIL 2022

God's smile on you is His goodness in operation. His manner of approach towards you is properly built on kindness and compassion. In a nutshell, His goodness became fully operational in your life when He kindly restored your relationship with Him by Christ's efficacious atonement for sin. Through the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, God smiled heavily upon you. The restorative approach through Christ is His unconditional, permanent approval; it is the very heart of His approval and acceptance, demonstrated through His loving-kindness, which we've obtained in Christ Jesus.

Reference: Psalm 4:6 NET Bible (NET) 'Many say, "Who can show us anything good?" Smile upon us, LORD!'

While David was meditating within his heart on his bed, he made up his mind to offer sacrifices of righteousness and to trust God. Then he pondered the question in the above verse which says: 'There are many who say, "Who will show us any good?" Smile upon us, Lord!"

Easter period is the very time we remember how God smiled heavily upon us by sending His only beloved Son, Jesus Christ to die for all mankind. It actually starts with a cheerful observance of Good Friday, the day Jesus died on the cross and then rose again three days later. Why is it known as Good Friday and what is good about the Friday, knowing fully well that Christ died a painful and shameful death, which is probably meant to be observed with sombre expression? Beloved, the Friday is so good because God responded to the question, "Who can show us anything good?" He smiled on us, a hopeless humanity and showed us His goodness by approving Christ's death on Good Friday.

Jesus Christ is God's goodness personified; Christ epitomized God's smile on us as He died on the cross for the sins of humanity in order to give us the gift of eternal life. His ministry on earth and perfect sacrifice exemplified the apex of His goodness towards mankind. Today if you are in Christ, you've received the full bundle of this goodness of God. Ephesians 1:5-6 (NKJV) reads, "having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved." In reality, this is where God's goodness started: He chose us in Christ even before the creation of the world and on the report of the book of Ephesians, He did it according to the good pleasure of His will.

To gain a more expansive view of this spiritual reality: "God's goodness", in the above Scripture, the phrase "the good pleasure of His will" actually means that God was enthusiastic in doing us good. It was His pleasure, delight and gusto to do us good in Christ, and He excellently did it to His satisfaction and gratification. By this I mean that God shares a wealth of real-life goodness with His children in accordance with well-informed insights into the Scriptures, replete with varieties of His promises fulfilled in Christ Jesus. How do you access and enjoy them? By opening your heart to the Word (Colossians 3:16), by getting filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), and by allowing the Spirit to guide you into all of them (John 16:13), thereby grasping and seeing their manifestation in your life.

Therefore, make up your mind to enjoy the goodness of God this season and beyond, by ensuring your constant engagement with the Holy Spirit. He is the symbol of divine purpose constantly working in you and through you to accomplish God's good pleasure and so, He is your irresistible and overwhelming evidence of God's goodness. Some few of the goodness are divine provision (Psalm 23:1), full supply (Philippians 4:19), healing and health (1 Peter 2:24; 3 John 1:2), abundance of prosperity and security (Jeremiah 33:6) and more. God's goodness is a bottomless pit of inexhaustible riches of His glory and He demonstrated all of them in one package - Christ. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - Exodus 34:6; Psalm 31:19-20; Nahum 1:7; Psalm 145:5-7; James 1:17.

Guided Prayer: Gracious heavenly Father, you are great and gloriously faithful, abounding in goodness and truth. You are extremely upright and there is no unrighteousness in you. Thank you for all the promises and benefits of salvation you've made available in Christ. Through the influence of eternal life and health-giving Scriptures, I enjoy unco wealth, success, increase, favour, victory and dominion; All the blessings of Kingdom prosperity are well directed towards me. Indeed, I can never fathom the full scope of your goodness and inexhaustible resources in Christ but I'm thoroughly grateful that you are my God forever, in Jesus' Name, Amen!