God's Good Thoughts

By Deborah Ironstand

I had been reading God’s word daily along with talking to Him when, one day, He surprised me as I was going about my devotions. I was at the table with the Bible opened. I thought I would pause for a moment to thank Him that I have His word, to tell Him how much I appreciated His sending His son Jesus to earth to die for me, and to thank Him for my family and other people.

Suddenly in my heart I heard His voice. I sensed He was talking to me! I had stopped talking and just listened as He confirmed that He has good thoughts and plans for me. I was so excited, I nearly fell off my chair! I felt blessed to think that He was listening to me all these months as I was seeking HIM.

And I was seeking Him as I had a lot of questions that I wanted answers to. One in particular was about the Kingdom of God. As we were growing up, we always had to repeat The Lord’s Prayer every morning in school. At home, my mother and grandmother would have us children repeat the prayer before going to sleep.

I know God was aware of some things affecting me in my job. After I'd get home from work, I’d realize I just came out of a situation where I was invited to gossip. So I would talk to God and tell him how I hated the gossip. It made me sick and I would resolve to not have anything to do with it again as it was wrong for a believer in the One who did so much for me, personally. I would pray, “Lord, help me not to gossip.”

Whenever it would start up at work, I would become burdened and saddened by it. I discovered this gossip often included lies but other ugly things. My heart was breaking and when I learned that others were gossipping about me, I started to experience how it felt to have people mistreat you and accuse you falsely. Sometimes, I would cry all day long! To top it off, someone else wanted my job! I couldn't believe how quickly everything was getting ugly.

I got to the point where I was feeling overwhelmed, until I started to remember what my Lord had impressed on my heart, "The thoughts I have toward you are good thoughts...” My faith in Him began to rise up and I would tell myself, “Wait a minute! He thinks only good thoughts toward you and He knows you even better than you know yourself.” I was encouraged.

As I mentioned earlier, I always wanted to understand the Kingdom of God better. Through His word, I came to understand that His good seed is in me to produce the fruit of righteousness. Meanwhile, our enemy sends bad seed into evil-hearted people where they grow into weeds like lying, gossipping, stealing, threatening, fighting, abuse and so on, because they are ignorant of the Living Lord. Realizing this helped me find comfort in God’s word.

I was humbled at His presence in my heart and how I could bond with Him through the changes that were happening in my life. I came to understand that everything I was hearing about people mocking my faith and laughing at my value to God was being filtered right through the Lord Jesus, Himself. The Lord God is an ever present help in trouble! I'm excited to say it was a personal victory for me to overcome the negative feelings and emotions that came from my troubles at work and eventually losing my job. Why? Because I have a relationship with my God in Christ and everything is for His glory.

So we grow from faith to faith (Romans 1:17) and are being transformed from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). All because He pours out His love in our hearts (Romans 5:5)