James 1:16-17 - Do not be Deceived (11-16-11)

James 1:16-17 - "Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow."

God does not want us to be deceived about His nature, His unchangeable character. The first thing that the devil will attack in the life of the believer is the goodness of God. When Satan came to Eve in the garden of Eden he attacked the goodness of God. He said “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” That's not at all what God said. He said “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” The devil distorted God's word and put a negative emphasis on it in order to make Eve feel like God was withholding something good from her. Even in the church today the reality of the goodness of God is a foreign concept.
When men, women, boys and girls of all ages and from all walks of life think about God, goodness is not the first thing that comes to their minds. When thinking about God we are tempted to think about him as a cosmic policeman carrying His nightstick and just waiting for us to mess up so that He can hit us over the head with it. This is such a wrong idea that comes, not from God, but from the devil himself.
I love A.W. Tozers definition of the goodness of God. "The goodness of God is that which disposes Him to be kind, cordial, benevolent, and full of good will toward men. He is tenderhearted and of quick sympathy, and His unfailing attitude toward all moral beings is frank, open, and friendly. By His nature He is inclined to bestow blessedness and He takes holy pleasure in the happiness of His people."
If we really believe this then surrendering our lives to Him, giving Him complete control will be no problem at all. So many Christians think that if they give full control of their lives to God then He will make them do something or be something that they don't want to do or be. They think that God is going to make them move to Africa and live with the bugs and the snakes and die an early death, or they think that He will lead them into ministry doing something they don't like to do and that God won't let them get married, or if He does let them get married it's going to be to someone who is dull and unattractive. These thoughts spring from a improper understanding of the nature of God. The Bible declares more then once that "The Lord is good." This is foundational to our faith. We need to get this truth ingrained in our hearts and minds. The attributes of God are not simply different ways He acts or different ways He responds to a given situation, but they are simply truths that we see in Scriptures that define His nature and character. God is just and holy and merciful and loving and wrathful and jealous and good, all at the same time. God can never act apart from Himself, so everything He does is underlined with every aspect of His character. God is good, this means that everything He does, every act He performs is good. 
So to those of us who belong to Him, the best possible thing we can do is give ourselves completely to Him knowing that He is good. The Bible declares in Psalm 84:11 - "For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly." If your afraid that giving yourself completely to God will result in you not getting something you want then you don't really believe that He is good. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. If you don't have something, whether it be a possession, a job, a relationship, whatever it might be, if you don't have it that means it's not good for you. We might think it is, but God alone knows and we can trust Him. Our definition of good might differ from Gods, and if that's the case then our value system needs to change. When we value what God values then whatever uncomfortable or trying situation that comes into our lives we'll view as sovereignly orchestrated by a good and loving God. This is the perspective that the apostle Paul had in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 where he says - "Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." He had the right perspective and the right value system. Don't be deceived, every good and perfect gift comes from God. We read in Romans 8:32 - "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?" God has already given us His best. All the goodness of God is summed up in the person of Christ and God gave Him up for us.

James 1:16-17 - "Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow."