What Does God’s Goodness Actually Look Like? – Hebrew Word Study

What happens when you need a miracle fast?  Often even unwillingly God’s goodness is in question.  The Israelites needed a miracle fast, when they were up against the red sea with the Pharoah’s army pressing up against them.  I don’t exactly know the time constraint that they had . . . hours?  A day?

And when they needed a miracle of food and water?  They probably needed it fast?

In Psalm 76 God is speaking about how He wasn’t going to leave them there.  He had done one miracle after another and wanted to keep doing more.  God’s goodness was in question.  Instead of thanking Him for the miracles He had done, they complained, they had their eyes on themselves and their limitations instead of Him.

Sometimes I look at my own faith or lack of instead of looking at Him and His past record and His goodness.

When my daughter and I needed a fast healing for a cat allergy because we were literally crying and choking up, struggling to breathe all the time, we needed those symptoms to move . . . fast. 

I knew it was His will for me to be healed, and I know it was already paid for at the cross . . . 1 Peter 2:24  By His stripes we were healed.

God said, ‘remind your body of where my Word is already working.’    I was 7 weeks pregnant . . . no morning sickness, haven’t had period pain in years since reading the Supernatural Childbirth book and praying that promise into existence, and I was healed of toxic mold poisoning.

That long standing cat allergy I’d had all my life was gone within the week.   God did not make cats, or horses or flowers to be a burden to us but a blessing.

God is faithful, it’s Who He is.  I love teaching that lifts our eyes onto His goodness.   One lady who does that well is Nikki Weller at the Healing Journeys Today YouTube Channel. 

I believe it was Smith Wigglesworth who said it is so important that we boast of the miracles that God is doing in us and through us because that is the true Gospel and it shows others that they can have it too.

We overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of our testimony.  Rev 12:11

If you are struggling to see a miracle come to pass, I’ve heard many testimonies of people who have seen symptoms start to leave as they heard stories of other peoples healings, eg from MS, brain injuries, fybromialgia, Lyme’s disease, asthma, food intolerances, paralysis and also just immersed themselves in preaching of God’s goodness and love for them.   You can find many of these testimonies at this Healing Journeys Video link

God said to me, ‘As you consume my promises, they begin to manifest and become part of you.’

Psalm 23 says that He prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies.  That table includes His promises to you.  Promises made in His Word about healing, deliverance and promises that He’s made to you personally through highlighted Scripture and prophetic words.   Don’t pull up your sprouts of hope – that future vision of you well living your dreams.

Just keep listening, keep taking those meds, whatever is keeping you alive and keep hearing God’s truth over you, including stories of His goodness and love.

I heard a beautiful story of a lady who could not afford to buy the medicine keeping her alive but God kept that bottle from running out for a year until she got well enough that she could get a job, and had prayer and got healed.

My husband has been challenging me lately, but if you really understood God’s goodness and His love, this particular issue you are dealing with would have been resolved by now, and so I’m writing out every time I hear  of God showing me and others His love.

The Five Minute Friday prompt today was Fast.

Last week the Five Minute Friday prompt was Run, and that had me delving into some Hebrew words about how God’s goodness runs after us.

I was listening to one of my favourite YouTube teacher’s, yes,  Nikki Weller @healingjourneystoday talking about how she got scammed on the internet. She forgave the person who did it and was ready to move on with her life, but God began to show her how He wanted to repay her for the damage and work everything out for good.
She was reading through the Psalms when the word Gimel above Psalm 119:17 jumped out at her, so she went to look it up.

She discovered that this word means justified repayment, or the giving of reward and repayment, this symbol traditionally represents a person in motion, symbolically a rich man running after a poor man to give him charity or help.
I thought that was beautiful and it reminded me of Psalm 23:6.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life

The Hebrew radaph word which is “follow” means to chase down with intent, to pursue, to hunt down.

Sometimes I think we don’t always realise the intentionality and intensity with which God pursues us. Oh, how great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear, revere and worship you. Psalm 31:19

My 3  girls watched Dora the Explorer a ridiculous amount of times the other day. Originally I put it on to keep Miss 7 months amused in her highchair whilst eating her fruit puree, but it was one of those annoying ones that kept turning itself back on after sitting on the menu for five minutes.

In the cartoon story Dora and her friends had broken instruments and a rubbish truck was coming to take them away and replace them with new ones but Dora was singing to her guitar that even though it was broken, ‘I still love you the most cause you’re mine’.

One morning I woke up with that song in my head and God saying even though there are things broken, I still love you the most cause you’re mine . . .

Isaiah 42:3 says ‘a bruised reed I will not break and a smoldering wick I will not snuff out.” There is some helpful history behind this Scripture.

The reed talked about here was a water weed that shepherds would pick to create a little flute out of but they were very easily damaged and it was far easier just to create a new one than to even think of trying to repair it.

The lyrics above are from a beautiful older song titled You Shine by Brian Doerksen.

God’s love is important; we all know that. On some level we all know that God loves us, I mean it’s the foundation of Christianity, but there are different levels of knowing.
I’ve heard a few different stories in the last few weeks of the importance of love.
One was from a Joseph Prince book of a chaplain he knew who was working in a mental health ward. The patients were locked in a room and not sane and not coherent and the chaplain really didn’t even know where to start. God simply told him to sing the old song, ‘Jesus Loves Me’. After singing this for weeks the patients came to their senses, were gradually moved through the program and eventually all but one or two were released into normal society.
The other story I heard was from back a long time ago when a king in Europe wanted to see what language was the universal language so he gathered up a bunch of babies and put them in a room. All their physical needs were met, they were fed and changed but they were not spoken to or held, and eventually all those babies died.

In Psalm 103 David is listing God’s benefits of healing our diseases and forgiving our sins, redeeming our lives from destruction. He writes that God crowneth thee with loving kindness . . .
H5849 (aw-tar) to encircle for attack or protection) especially to crown
And tender mercies
H7356 (racham) compassion; by extension the womb, (as cherishing the foetus;)

When I’m trying to figure out how much God loves me, I just need to think of my girls and how I work hard to protect them, make sure their physical needs of shelter and food are met, (seemingly every 2 hours during daylight times) and how I love to sit down and do lego with them and bless them when it’s appropriate to do so with their favourite food or toy, or just sit and listen to them.


I remember when I was about 7, sitting in the loungeroom of our house and Mum came in while I was watching tv and gave me a cold Milo and I asked her why and she said because she knew I liked it. “But I didn’t ask for it, Mum.” “But I knew you would like it anyway.” And I did, and obviously that interaction made an impact on me because I still remember it.
He says we are more important than sparrows, that He knows every hair on our head, that we are more important than the wildflowers.

God says that faith works by love. That’s two fold. We need to stay in the love of God by not getting bitter, offended or living in unforgiveness but faith also comes by hearing, and I discovered that the word for hearing is continuous tense and sometimes we need to hear over and over how much God loves us, because when we really see that, things that we’ve been fighting with declaration and standing can suddenly shift in an instant.

It is God’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom. Sometimes it feels like such a fight, and we actually need to remember it’s His good pleasure to give it to us.

I love how it says here His gentleness has made us great.

Psalm 18:35, KJV: Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy gentleness hath made me great.

God wants us to know and experience His love.  It’s an anchor and strong foundation for our lives, just the knowledge of it, but He also wants us to experience it, as Ephesians 3:14-18 says.   This Scripture is known as an Apostolic Prayer that we can pray over ourselves and I’ve created a free Printable, so that we can have it in front of us.   Just right click save as, and then Print it out and laminate. 

If you would like 5 more Apostolic Prayers that have been turned into Printables, I have a six week series of e-mails that arrive right in your inbox

 

 

 

About Elizabeth

My name is Elizabeth Ainsworth, a wife and mother in QLD Australia who shares her ponderings of faith at Where Deep Calls to Deep

2 thoughts on “What Does God’s Goodness Actually Look Like? – Hebrew Word Study

  1. Why are we so surprised when God answers our prayers? Is it because the occurrence is rare or perhaps our lives are not operating in accordance with His will?

    Hmmm….

    You are a prayer warrior!

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