So January brought me the challenge to be on the lookout and identify God’s goodness and love in my love every day. It seems the challenge came with a learning curve. February found me wondering how to experience God’s goodness and love. And maybe you’ve found yourself in the learning curve too. I have found some days I can’t think of anything to write down. Nothing spectacular happened that screamed “God did that!” A particular verse or passage didn’t jump out at me. Now I know for a fact that God’s with me every minute of every day and he’s working in my life all the time. So that kind of confused me. Sometimes I would pray and he would bring something to mind but a couple days I just had nothing.
That’s been on my mind this week. I’ve been reading through the Psalms and David seems to often feels like God is silent and not there. So maybe I’m not crazy or bad at this. Maybe the important thing is we are looking for Him. Jesus does say to knock, seek and ask so we are expected to be in pursuit of Him.
Chip Ingram wrote a book a few years ago entitled The Real God and I’ve been working through my the chapter in God’s Goodness. In that chapter he outlines 3 ways God shows us His goodness. I found them helpful as I was evaluating my days for God’s goodness.
First, we can look for Him through things that happen to us. Pastor Ingram called these natural blessing as they are things like pleasure, beauty, meaning, and relationships plus many others. This could be a close parking spot opening up when you’re in a hurry, a beautiful sunset, an encouraging word spoken by a friend just to give a couple examples. And His goodness is given to all- believers and in believers alike.
Pastor Ingram uses Psalm 145: 7-9 and 15-17 to show this way God shows us His goodness. In this Psalm we see all kinds go actions that show God’s goodness to believers and non believers alike. He has created the order for the world for blessing.
They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness
and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
The Lord is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
The Lord is good to all,
and his mercy is over all that he has made.
The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season.
You open your hand;
you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and kind in all his works.
– Psalm 145: 7-9, 15-17
Secondly, God shows us His goodness through specific deliverance. God redeems, rescues, heals and protects us and the Bible is full of examples of God specifically acting in these ways. For example, He redeemed the situation with Ruth and Naomi, He rescued the Israelites from the Egyptians, He healed Naaman from leprosy, and He protected David from Saul. Pastor Ingram uses Psalm 107 to illustrate this way. He recommends reading the Psalm slowly and you will be blown away with what you learn about God in there. I was! And after reading that I’m sure you will be able to identify God’s hand in situations throughout your days and weeks.
When you read through it, look for the way “God redeems the helpless from their enemies…, rescues us from the shadow of death…, heals our diseases…, and protects us from the storms that threaten to sink our lives… all because He is good.” (Ingram, The Real God, p73)
Lastly, Pastor Ingram teaches that God shows us His goodness through his Son Jesus. If nothing else, you can say God is good because He sent His Son Jesus to die to pay the price for your sin. He poses these questions and they are surely worth some contemplation.
“Have you ever considered how valuable you must be to God, given the price that He’s paid for you? Have you ever just let your mind try to grasp how precious, important, desirable, and deeply loved you must be for God the Father to let Jesus die to rescue you for himself? If you ever get a handle on that, if it ever really sinks in, it will change you deep inside.”
– Pastor Chip Ingram
And he died for you while you were yet a sinner. You didn’t do anything to make Him want to save you. That’s something.
“He who did not spare his own Son gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” Romans 8:32
Reading those explanations of how God shows us and allows us to experience His goodness was really helpful for me. Hopefully that has given you some inspiration of how to identify God’s goodness in your every day.
Next week we will look at Psalm 145 more closely in light of God’s goodness.
Blessings to your week!
PS. If you want to join me in my challenge and track God’s goodness daily, sign up and grab your free printable to help you keep track!