Two concepts and topics recently collided for me. God blessed me by connecting the dots between consecration and His goodness. As I usually say: perspective changes everything.
One song that we sang in worship time on Sunday morning at church was unfamiliar. It was I Shall Not Want by Audrey Assad. In it she sings “When I taste Your goodness, I shall not want” and it was one of those moments when a fresh perspective is downloaded into your heart.
Have you ever read Psalm 23 and wondered what David meant when he said “the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want?” when your life was currently characterized by lack and unmet desires? I have.
What about times when you felt unheard and misunderstood ? Maybe want for you isn’t materialistic but more emotional. I’ve been there too. That’s part of the reason I study and write about God’s goodness. If you’ve read my testimony, you know that I was raised to be very familiar with the long arm of God and not really familiar with His love, grace, and goodness.
Knowing a close personal relationship with God is fairly recent in the span of my life. Naturally, those verses speaking to abundance, life, rest, and not wanting never made sense to me. Maybe you can relate. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the prosperity message and think that God’s blessing is bigger homes, more money, expensive things and all that. It’s a popular message today- name it and claim it. If we are honest and truly look at scripture, God’s favor often does the opposite in order to grow us and mature us in Christ. We are actually called to be partakers in the sufferings of Christ, as we read in 1 Peter.
As I have studied God’s goodness I have seen how His goodness is what God uses to draw us to himself, grow us in Him to maturity, and bring us to a point of consecrating our lives to Him. It is when we are sold out to God and fully surrender to His plan for our life that we live in a place of total contentment. That’s the secret that Paul mentions when he says he has learned to be content in much and in little.
Singing that song Sunday morning flooded my heart with the understanding that it is God’s goodness that blesses us in that way. When we have come to the place where we are fully surrendered to God’s plan we have tasted His goodness. It is from that place that we want for nothing. God has become everything and the world has lost its grip on us.
I think that is the ultimate blessing of the consecrated life. We are no longer held captive by the materialistic things of this life and the pull of worldly success. The ultimate benefit is true freedom. God is enough.
Once God brings us to the point that our hearts are aligned with His and He is enough we are blessed with perfect peace. Being able to say “I shall not want” is a manifestation of perfect peace, isn’t it?
Only then, once our longings and motives are out of the way, can He then move mightily and do amazing things in our life. We read in Joshua 3 the story of the Israelites crossing the Jordan into the promised land. The national punishment of wandering for 40 years is over and they are ready to enter the promised land. Joshua had one word of advice to the people. We read:
Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow and the Lord will do wonders among you.”
Joshua 3:5
The Israelites were blessed to witness the waters of the Red Sea part and they walked on dry ground. What a miracle they could have missed if they had refused to respond to the call to consecrate themselves! If they had been worried about how they were going to solve the problem and preoccupied about making plans based on human wisdom they would have missed the miracle.
By consecrating themselves to the Lord they allowed God to move mightily on their behalf and in their favor. Let that sink in for a minute. What might we be missing by stubbornly trying to make things work out of our own knowledge. Proverbs 31 writer Wendy Pope said:
“To see God move mightily in my life, my life must move mightily toward God.”
– Wendy Pope
And that mirrors Psalm 1 where we read:
We are called blessed when we walk not in the way of the wicked.
Psalm 1:1
The person who can say “I shall not want” is a person who has tasted God’s goodness, been changed by it, is surrendered to the Lord, and is living a consecrated life. I don’t know about you but that is definitely what so want for my life! I’d love to hear your thoughts. Join the discussion in the Facebook group! This post will be shared in the announcements section. You can also leave me a comment below.
If you enjoyed this article, you can find more in this series on Consecration here:
Sometimes Life Happens While You’re Making Plans
The Importance of a Life Consecrated to the Lord
The Cost of Consecration
Has God’s Goodness Created Consecration in Your Life?
Holy Purpose: A Consecrated Life
How to Become a Light in the Darkness