“With the goodness of God to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God to plan it, and the power of God to achieve it, what do we lack? Surely, we are the most favored of all creatures.”  –A.W. Tozer

I have been thinking about the goodness of God lately, and how the continual remembrance of His goodness affects our whole outlook on life. As our family observes the Sabbath each week, it’s a wonderful time to reflect on what we are thankful for and how God has shown His goodness to us. This helps us disengage from the stresses and strains of life and turn our focus on Him.

We recognize that the Sabbath is not a day to go about our own business, but as Isaiah admonishes us, “If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the holy day a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable: if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly, then you shall take delight in the LORD and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father.” (58:13-14) We have the privilege of drawing close to our Creator on this day and separating ourselves from the distractions of commerce, productivity, and prosperity.

We are called up higher, to the mountain top with our Creator, not the valleys where our spiritual vision can be limited and problem-ridden. The specter of fear is fueled by unbelief in God’s incredible goodness. I believe the stresses of life are not so much the problems that we encounter, but how we meet them. A man of God once wrote that if we get our eyes off our problems and look up to God, then most of our problems will disappear.

We will have a wonderful Sabbath day because God is our Father, and He loves us more than we can ever imagine. We do not have to wait for our present circumstances to catch up with the promises of God. We do not see troubles as adversaries, but as a chance for us to see our need and then go to the One who bears our burdens and brings us to the mountain top to spend a Sabbath with Him. He has a perfect plan for our lives, and in it we rejoice in God’s greatness and his tender mercy toward us.

On this Sabbath day, let us go up to the mountain of God and behold His loveliness. Let us set our eyes on the things above and refuse to entertain the muddy waters of worry or distraction. We love God, He loves us, and that transcends everything.