Coffee is Good but God is Better

The quarantine of the worldwide pandemic in the year 2020 has been a trying time for everyone that I know. The world has been faced with decisions that frankly, they have not been equipped to make before this took place. Stress in the street is worn readily on the faces of the passer-byes. The phrase “God is good, all the time and all the time, God is good” has been on my heart lately; As I actively study the responses of the faces around me to calculate my own reactions to the recent events.  

Zoom in to my world on April the 7th of 2020 and you will find me (the brand-new Pastor of a church revitalization) working on a church remodel. At the same time, we have been ordered to shut the doors to our worship services of gatherings over 10 people. I try very diligently to look on the things of others more than my own personal needs. Philippians 2:4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. This morning I woke up to a beautiful balmy 60 something degrees after having slept at the church last night due to the extra-long workday yesterday. Limping downstairs to the old-time standard coffee pot, I proceeded to make coffee to no avail. Grounds from the filter had floated over into my coffee pot, which I discovered as I poured the fresh sludge into my cup. The thoughts of the work at hand, quickly overtook the disappointment of the failed caffeination process. 

Now zoom into my head two hours later and listen to my longings: “coffeeeeeee”. I was working for the Lord and just really wanted a cup of coffee. I have a theological view of prayer that we are to not demand things from God for wrong reasons. The Bible declares, we waste our prayers, asking amiss, or bringing the wrong kind of demands to God in prayer.  James 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. I know what I believe about prayer, but I also know what I believe about God. I uttered a prayer anyway, "God, if you want to, you can bring me a cup of coffee while I work here in this place. No, actually God, would you do that? You don't have to because I asked, but you could, and You are good." About 30 minutes later, I have a cup of coffee in my hand from a dear lady from our church that came by to see if I needed anything. 

God’s character is good, and He said He would not withhold anything that is good from me. God is not holding back on our needs and many times gives us our desires Psalms 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. God isn't withholding anything good. I have been reminded today that coffee is good, but God is better.