"Knowing God's Goodness"

"For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the work of thy hands."
(Psalms 92:4)
Yesterday I actually heard two messages that shared on very similar topics, which had to do with God's promise to Abraham, which took place long before the law was given to Moses. The first one was fairly simple to understand, in that the pastor spoke about starting out his family by making sure that his wife and him had a Will, and in that Will, all of the assets were given to their children. As there children were growing up, they received blessings and curses based upon their performance; if they were good, then they received an allowance for doing as they were told, but if they disobeyed what they were told to do, then they did not get their allowance and might have even been punished. But the inheritance that was promised them from the very beginning was never taken away, because that inheritance was not determined by their actions, it was based upon a promise given unconditionally. We get so caught up with keeping track of the curses, we forget about all the blessings; but regardless of whatever comes and goes, our inheritance will always be right where it is, totally safe from any stupid thing that we could ever think of doing in this life. You might not agree with that, and that's something you are entitled to believe. Does it meet the merit of doctrine that might cost you your salvation? Maybe not; but you have got to believe that God loves you unconditionally, and if I am not mistaken, you're pushing the envelope of belief when you start attaching conditions. I think the Lord made that pretty clear with the parable of the Prodigal Son; that being the second message that I heard, with a little slightly more complexity. In this message, the son had asked his Father for his inheritance, instead of waiting to receive it when it should have been given. We sometimes miss some pretty important messages by shutting out those things which we don't think apply to our lives; or maybe even when apply the message to someone else, not thinking that God is speaking to us. Yes, well, I think we all can take a little something away from this one. The son had everything he could have ever wanted by living in his father's house, and under his father's rule; but he did not want to live under his father's rule, which meant that he needed to move out of his father's house; so he asked for his inheritance so that he could go live a life of his own. God is so GOOD! The son might have been stupid and not in his right frame of mind; he might have also been very bad and not have really cared what his father thought of his actions; but no matter, he never stopped being his father's son...
"I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ. In the same way, "Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith." The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God. What's more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would declare the Gentiles to be righteous because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, "All nations will be blessed through you." So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith." (Galatians 3:5-9) NLT