I have been wondering what a ‘good land’ is for me? I think it would be a land that is safe, with no threat to me and all other inhabitants. I would appreciate a place of beauty, with plants, trees and flowers, with water and many animals, birds, insects and sea life, as well as an abundance of pure drinking water, and plant foods to grow and eat, very much as the garden of Eden was when created on earth. That would mean that God would be able to talk to me, and I would see and talk with Jesus, and hosts of angels, as well as many loveable and peace loving people who lived there also. I would even more so than on earth enjoy keeping and tending a garden, in productive soil, with nothing that destroyed or harmed plant life or human life. I have every hope of realizing this dream and ambition that is promised in God’s word. Deuteronomy 8 : 1 “Every commandment which I command you today, you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. 5 “You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. 6 Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs that flow out of valleys and hills.”
In any ‘good land’ or place, people will always love and care about others, and not refrain from helping any other person, in every appropriate way they can. Galatians 6: 1 – 5 “Brethren, if any man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore each one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing he deceives himself. 4 But let each one examine his own work and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not another. 5 For each one shall bear his own load.” Until the righteous are in the heavenly place with our wonderful God Almighty, they will have opportunity to choose the way of right doing, through reliance upon God and His word. With devotion to God and His way of love for all mankind, comes deep satisfaction, and life direction, that is only known to the participant, for it is God given.
Isaiah 26: 3, 4 “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord is everlasting strength. V7 and 8 “The way of the just is uprightness; O Most Upright, You weigh the path of the just. Yes, in the way of Your judgments, O Lord, we have waited for You; the desire of our soul is for Your name and for the remembrance of You.” V 12 “Lord, You will establish peace for us, for You have also done all our works in us.” Isaiah writes so beautifully, about the results of a close unity and interaction, that exists between God and someone who invites God into their heart and mind; and as a result, is obedient to Him, and walks the way of righteousness. It would seem among other things peace, love and grace comes to us as an inheritance, from our ‘Most Upright’ God.
I do not desire to live apart from You, my God, and again today I will cherish all Your gifts, especially Your love, grace and peace. I am sad for the times, I allow myself to come away from Your provision because I am running headlong through my day, focussed on my tasks and occupations ; which means my mind cannot be totally ‘stayed upon You’. Please be my strength and wisdom to lay all my plans before you, and proceed as you direct, and so avoid rushing onto the path that is stressful and without Your close direction and presence.