What Ants Taught Me About God

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His goodness doesn’t depend on my circumstances. His goodness depends solely on His character. I’ve been reading a wonderful new book titled Wild and Free by Hayley Morgan and Jess Connolly. I’m pretty sure I used the highlight button on my Kindle to color half the book, but there were so many good things they put together. One in particular has stuck with me. ”God is beholden only to the promises He Himself has made.

The one thing is, God cannot contradict Himself.

He is good and cannot ever in any single moment be anything other than good. He is strong and mighty, and his purposes will prevail (Proverbs 19:21).” God cannot ever be anything other than good. When circumstances are good in my life, this is easy to believe. Good things happening—good God. But when things are rough, I have to dig deeper. The problem is I start shaping God’s character around my view of my life. I take the infinite, all-knowing, sovereign, all-powerful God and subject him to my myopic view.

One day recently, my girls were helping me with some gardening in the front yard. Lydia and Charlotte started yelling, “Momma, come quick! There are ants on our plant!” They were looking at the peony plant, and all its pale pink blossoms were still tightly closed. On the outside of the blossoms they saw a dozen or so ants scurrying about. They were worried that the ants were going to harm the plant, but I knew that what looked like a bad thing was actually a good thing. Those ants were actually eating the sugar off the outside layers of the peony blossom so it could soon open up and show its true beauty. As children of God, we know that He promises us that He will work everything together for good. “

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28 The commentary in the ESV Study Bible says this about verse 28, “God weaves everything together for good for his children. The “good” in this context does not refer to earthly comfort but conformity to Christ (v. 29), closer fellowship with God, bearing good fruit for the kingdom, and final glorification (v. 30).”

I could see the bigger picture that day with our peony plant and the ants. I knew that what my girls saw as a bad thing was actually exactly what the plant needed to become the beautiful flower it was created to be.

We have to remember that God knows just what we need to become the women He has created us to be.

His goodness isn’t dependent on our circumstances. He is always good, and His purposes will always prevail. So when the ants of life come—the hard times, the painful days, we can falter and give up or we can trust Him in faith knowing He is making something beautiful as He works everything together for good. How had God shown His goodness to your family?

In my prayer journal, I love to record how God brought us through a hard time so that later when I am in another dark day I can be reminded of God’s faithfulness. One family I know keeps a bowl of rocks, and whenever God shows His faithfulness to their family, they write it on the back of a rock and add it to the bowl. How does your family remember God’s goodness?

**Today’s inspiration was written by Elissa Roberts – you can follow her at www.elissawroberts.com 

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lisa rippy

1 Comment

  1. Libby Williams on June 7, 2016 at 10:42 am

    Elissa, thank you for this powerful truth. God is so good to allow us to share the same heavenly Father. He teaches us daily through His Word and just observing His children and His creation. I love this post! God bless you dear one! Have a wonderful day!

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