I Do Not Deserve This Much Goodness, But He Gives It Anyway

I spent much of my “free time” (what is that, anyway?) serving my kids. I wasn’t feeling well, but decided, since my boys are into music, to add several of the CDs they found to the music library that we use for their MP3 Players (My second oldest came home around 9 PM last night with new ones as well, one of which included Carlos Santana, so I added those), and the process kept me up until about 1 AM. I don’t know if my kids will ever know the extent to which I do things for them, and (since they will NOT be reading this, to my knowledge anyway) I don’t expect them to. You do things because you love them. Sometimes, that love is taken for granted, but you send love out, not expecting a return (sorry Paul McCartney, the love you take is NOT equal to the love you make).

This got me thinking: how much do we take for granted from our Heavenly Father’s blessing? Psalm 139 speaks of an intimacy that our creator has with us: knowing our ways, knowing there is nowhere that we can hide from His love, knowing that His thoughts about us vastly outnumber the sands of the sea shore; we deserve none of this! We sin against Him, we come to Him for the blessings, chase Him when there’s trouble, and walk away when times are good. And yet, even when we forsake Him, He makes His rain fall on us, He provides for us, and He blesses us so much that even the unjust feel that blessing. This love is so deep that He sent His Son to die on our behalf, and the majority of us will never seek Him, even with that lifeline that Jesus provided for us. God is so good to us, and, this side of heaven, I do not think we will even skim the surface of His goodness.

Today, whether you’re working, going to school, or whatever it is you’re doing, pause and reflect on God’s goodness. Seek His kindness and mercy. Try and see His hand in all of your life, whether He’s holding you up in a trial, or sending you a breeze in the sunshine. Bow to Him as Holy, and seek to surrender at all times to His will, that His goodness isn’t merely a shelter in a storm, but the compass by which your life is directed.

Psalm 139

O Lord, you have searched me and known me!

You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down

and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue,

behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

You hem me in, behind and before,

and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

it is high; I cannot attain it.

Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

If I take the wings of the morning

and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light about me be night,”

even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is bright as the day,

for darkness is as light with you.

For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

If I would count them, they are more than the sand.

I awake, and I am still with you.

Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!

O men of blood, depart from me!

They speak against you with malicious intent;

your enemies take your name in vain.

Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?

And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?

I hate them with complete hatred;

I count them my enemies.

Search me, O God, and know my heart!

Try me and know my thoughts!

And see if there be any grievous way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting!