For You have maintained my right and my cause; -Psalm 9:4a

Understanding this should not make us automatically claim that God is on our side in our battles or disputes; it should rather make us endeavor to be on God’s side, by rigorously conforming ourselves to His word.- From David Guzik's commentary on Psalm 9 (Enduring Word - David Guzik)

We oftentimes think that because something is "working out" for us and/or the way we planned, means that God is in it, is blessing us, and He must be on our side. That is not always the case, especially if what we're doing goes against Scripture, such as lying about something for the “greater good”, or when what we're doing conflicts with something else we as Christians are told to do in Scripture.

It's also true of the opposite, when we're going through things of no fault of our own that we think are bad, or we make a decision that doesn't turn out to be what we think is good, we can oftentimes think that God is against us or punishing us and He can’t be on our side.

First and foremost, we must be daily seeking The Lord and His will for our lives, which is to become more like Jesus, being on His side.  This cannot be done without spending time in prayer, in The Word, in discipleship, in body life, serving and loving God and others, etc.

There is NO possible way we can be doing God’s will in our lives without doing these things on a regular basis.  While we can’t be in church all the time, we can be in prayer most of the time, we can be in God’s Word several times during the day, etc.

I find it hard to believe that anyone who is actively pursuing and applying these things in their life, can ever be out of God’s Will for their lives.  This is someone who is endeavoring to be on God’s side.  Does this mean that we won’t sin, no.  Won’t make bad choices, no.  Won’t go through hard times, no.

I’ve heard it said that when we go through the storms of life, some are storms of correction for when I’m either doing the wrong thing or not doing the right thing.  Some are storms of perfection for when God is refining me to be more like Jesus.  And some are storms that I’m in because I’m just an idiot and did something stupid, of course not talking about blatantly sinning.

I oftentimes hear people say that making this choice or not making that choice was the best thing and what God wanted for them.  I also hear the opposite when they make a bad choice, such as taking the wrong job, marrying the wrong person, etc. and saying it wasn’t what God wanted for them and then do all they can to get out of the decision they made.  For example, I’ve heard people claim that they discovered that they had not married the person who God wanted them to, divorced their spouse(s), and then married another person who just happened to be who God wanted them to marry! 

No matter how many times I try to change my circumstances, blaming others, etc., wherever I go, there I am!  God continually wants to work in my life to get me to be on His side and He will use whatever means necessary to accomplish this in me, if I truly want to allow Him to do it!

When people say that they’re sure that they made the best possible choice, I say how would we really know, since we didn’t do the other thing?  Do we really know what God’s best for every situation is, before or after we make it?  The Lord tells us in Isaiah 55:8, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD.  I’m not saying that we don’t know or that we do, but this verse may!

We’re told in Romans 8:28a, which is where most “Christians” stop reading- And we know that God causes all things to work together for good.  However, like all of God’s promises, there’s a catch.  As we read on in verse 28-to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose-we can easily see that this promise is only to those who love God and who are called according to His purpose.

In a nutshell, Jesus told us in John 14:15-"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.  We can easily see that God’s promise of everything working out for good is for those who obey Him and therefore are living our lives the way He wants us to, being on His side.  Does this mean that we must be perfect for this to happen, absolutely not.  But if our goal in life is not to do what The Lord wants us to do and then think He’s just going to “magic wand” our lives into good we have no understanding of God’s Word and like James 1:22 says, we are deceived about what, if any, our actual relationship with The Lord is!

We also need to understand just what the word good means.  Personally, as I’m writing this devo I’m going through something very painful physically.  It should be an easy procedure to get taken care of but working through the system takes time and of course I waited until it got to the point that I had to deal with it!  So right now, “good” to me is for the doors to open so I can have the procedure, that it goes without any issues, and that my recovery time is minimal so I can get back at it.  But give me a minute and I’ll come up with another thing that will be “good” to me!

Remember that Isaiah 55:8-9 says that God’s thoughts and ways aren’t the same as ours.  It’s possible that God means something different for the word good in the Romans passage than what most of us think!  From the immortal words of Inigo Montoya, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means!"  

Reading on in Romans 8:29-For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.  We can see in this passage that becoming more like Christ is the good that God is saying He’ll make all things work together in our lives for in vs 28.  This is us coming over to God’s side!

We need to think if we're trying to get God to be on our side and our decisions, or if we're trying to align our lives to be on God's side by making decisions according to God’s Word!

It’s not about how things work out here on this earth!  It’s about our spiritual state and relationship with The Lord.  The point of what the Psalmist wrote here is that we aren’t trying to get God to support us and our cause, we need to be part of what He wants and what He’s doing all around us, especially in our own personal relationship with Jesus, being on His side!

We cannot expect to get anywhere on the narrow path that few find, if we’re caught up in ourselves, our families, our jobs, our hobbies, etc.  It will only happen when we get serious about spending time in God’s Word, in prayer, in Bible Studies, going to church, fellowshipping, serving others, etc.  When we are right with The Lord and thus on God's side, all the other things will completely fall into place, we’ll be right in step with God (His will), and will one day arrive to heaven to see the fruit of the labor we did that God totally provided everything we needed to accomplish it with.  Then we'll hear, “Well done My good and faithful servant, you’ve been faithful over little, I’ll make you ruler over much!”-Jesus-Matthew 25:23.

Please don't hesitate to reach out to us with any questions, prayer requests, etc.  We'd love to pray with and for you and to the best of our ability answer any questions you may have soley using God's Word!

Here to serve and disciple until He calls us home,

Curt & Mary Jo

Note-all Scripture references in parenthesis are direct links God's Word so that you can easily click and read what The LORD has to say about the section before the reference.  I encourage you to click, read, study and even memorize these passages for yourself and NOT to just not just take my word for it.  (Psalm 119)  Also the links take you to Blue Letter Bible's website, which is a great tool for reading and understanding God's Word, https://www.blueletterbible.org/