{"id":858,"date":"2018-02-21T07:44:07","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T15:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=858"},"modified":"2018-02-21T07:44:07","modified_gmt":"2018-02-21T15:44:07","slug":"devotion-zechariah-139-god-is-good-and-he-loves-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=858","title":{"rendered":"Devotion Zechariah 13:9 God Is Good And He Loves Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zechariah 13:9<\/b>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0\u201c\u2026This third I will put into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold.\u00a0 They will call\u00a0on my name and I will answer\u00a0them; I will say, \u2018They are my people,\u2019 and they will say, \u2018The\u00a0Lord\u00a0is our God.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout the history of Israel, they have both been faithful to God for a time and then, every time, they have fallen back into rebellion and to being unfaithful.\u00a0 Though God would discipline Israel, He also always offered grace to them.\u00a0 He always called them back.\u00a0 He always made a way back.\u00a0 Even now as the nation of Israel, as the people of Israel, the Lord always has a remnant of those faithful to Him (Isaiah 10<\/b>).\u00a0 Noah and his family were a remnant of faithful and obedient to God (Genesis 6-8<\/b>).\u00a0 Lot and his daughters were the remnant that survived the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19<\/b>).\u00a0 When the prophet Elijah thought he was the last remaining person on the earth who was faithful to God the Lord revealed to him that he had thousands of others who have remained faithful to him (1 Kings 19<\/b>).\u00a0 And the Lord is still calling to the nation of Israel back to Him.\u00a0\u00a0Jeremiah 30:7<\/b>\u00a0refers to the Great Tribulation as the \u201cTime of Jacob\u2019s trouble.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0The End Times signs revolve around Israel because even though they rejected Jesus their Messiah, God continues to love them and call them back.\u00a0 Though they are unfaithful, God remains faithful (2 Timothy 2:13<\/b>).\u00a0 God gives us grace not because of who we are, but because of who He is.\u00a0 He loves us because of who He is and not because any of us deserve His love.\u00a0 He is faithful to Israel because He made a promise to them and He will keep it.\u00a0 As we read the Old Testament, the mercy and grace of God, the faithfulness of God, jumps off the pages to us.\u00a0 When Jesus spoke of forgiveness, it was no theory, it is what God does for Israel, and all of us, every day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout the Word of God, His love, mercy and grace are evident for all to see, for all who will want to see.\u00a0 In the final days before the second coming of Jesus, the Lord will gather in His lost sheep, the remnant of Israel.\u00a0 We, the church of Jesus, should gather strength and faith from His faithful relationship with Israel.\u00a0 As He is faithful to Israel, so He is faithful to us.\u00a0 As He has never given up on Israel, so He never has, and never will, give up on us.\u00a0 His faithfulness to us is displays a part of who He is.\u00a0 His faithfulness to us can be traced back to His love of us.\u00a0 God is two things.\u00a0 He is righteous and He is loving.\u00a0 God is righteous, meaning He is good all the time.\u00a0 He is loving and He loves no-one more than His children.\u00a0 God is good all the time and He loves us.\u00a0 With a love that never ends and with a goodness that He cannot betray God will always save.\u00a0 That is who He is.\u00a0 It is part of His goodness and His love.\u00a0 God offers forgiveness to all because it is who He is.\u00a0 God saved and saves.\u00a0 He saves us and keeps saving us as He brings us home.\u00a0 So let us look at the faithfulness of God to Israel and let our faith in who God is grow.\u00a0 Look at the goodness and love of God in our own personal lives.\u00a0 We see that He saved us and saves us.\u00a0 We see that He is our Savior, our Healer, our Provider, our Protector and our God.\u00a0 He is the source of all blessings.\u00a0 We thank Him for every good thing.\u00a0 God has prophesied that Israel will come back to Him and acknowledge Him as their God.\u00a0 It is the same with us.\u00a0 It is true of us.\u00a0 We too do say, and will always say \u201c<\/span>The\u00a0Lord\u00a0is our God.\u201d\u00a0 We will call on Him and He has stated \u201cI will answer\u00a0them.\u201d We know who are God is.\u00a0 That He is good. That He loves us.\u00a0 And that He will answer us.\u00a0 God is faithful to us and we can, and we do depend on Him.\u00a0 Praise our God who is our refuge and comfort!\u00a0 Praise our God who is our everything!\u00a0 Seek our God in good times and in tough times.\u00a0 He always seeks us.\u00a0 May we always seek Him in all that do and with all that we are.\u00a0 He is worthy! Praise God!<\/p>\n

Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zechariah 13:9\u00a0\u2013\u00a0\u201c\u2026This third I will put into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold.\u00a0 They will call\u00a0on my name and I will answer\u00a0them; I will say, \u2018They are my people,\u2019 and they will say, \u2018The\u00a0Lord\u00a0is our God.\u2019\u201d Throughout the history of Israel, they have both been faithful to God…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[1865,103,99,2148,94,17,2036,874],"class_list":["post-858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-genesis","tag-isaiah","tag-jeremiah","tag-kings","tag-micah","tag-psalm","tag-timothy","tag-zechariah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=858"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":859,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858\/revisions\/859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}