Tag: God is good

Psalm 100

Such a beautiful Psalm, one that should be read often. It is filled with solid truths that we can cling to in all circumstances. 

The Lord is God. He is the Creator of the universe. He made each one of us. We are His, and we are loved by Him. He knows more about me than I know about myself, and He still loves me. He loves my children more than I can possibly imagine. He is God.

The Lord is good. Always. When was the last time you did something wonderful for someone who was not kind to you? God is always blessing us, even when we do not give Him the praise or glory for it. Even when we do not appreciate it. 

His love endures forever. I disappoint Him every single day, and yet He still has prepared a place in Heaven for me. I do not know exactly what will happen the day I die. I do know that God will not meet me at the Pearly Gates and give me a lecture about all of the things that I could have done better or about all of the mistakes that I made. He will not make me feel guilty for not being perfect. He has prepared a beautiful place that He will welcome me into for all of eternity, despite my mistakes and imperfections.

His faithfulness continues through all generations. Through every difficulty and every hardship, He has been there. He has never left me or forsake me. He has hurt with me. He has always been faithful to provide just what I needed at just the right time. Sometimes it was something physical, and sometimes it was the exact amount of strength I needed to endure a little longer. 

For all of these reasons, I will shout for joy to the Lord. I will worship Him with gladness. I will come before Him with joyful songs. I will enter His gates with thanksgiving. I will give thanks to Him and praise His name.

Moving F.O.R.W.A.R.D. with Grief (Part 3)

O – OPEN YOUR EYES

In the beginning of our grief, I couldn’t understand how the earth could continue to spin on its axis when my heart was so broken. I would be out somewhere around town and people would be laughing and talking. How could they do that? Don’t they know. My life has crumbled around me, and I will never be the same person again.

We would go to church and I would struggle to get out the words to “Blessed be Your Name.” I wanted to, but I was having so much trouble finding reasons to praise God. 

I was so blinded by grief that I couldn’t see anything else going on around me. All I knew was that my mom was fighting cancer and my son was gone and it might be 40 or 50 years before God would call me home. I desperately needed to see something good, anything good around me. I needed to find reasons to praise God even in the hurting.

“You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.” Psalm 63:1

Like David, I felt as though I was in a dry and parched land with no water. I asked God to open my eyes to the good things He was doing around me. I begged Him to show me reasons to give Him praise.

Somewhere along the way, I had heard about people keeping gratitude journals. So I started one. Every night, before I fell asleep, I would list as many things as I could think of that I was grateful for that day. Some days the things I listed were very simple: the baked potato at dinner tasted really good or the fact that I didn’t have to be on the south side of the interstate one afternoon during heavy traffic. Other days those glimpses of blessings brought me hope of continued healing. The day I realized that my daughter’s smile had returned, the real one that goes all the way to her eyes. The deep gratitude for that blessing continues to bring tears to my own eyes. 

God is so good. 

He created this beautiful world that we live in, and we can see His fingerprints all around us: in the clouds, in the majesty of the mountains, in the sun that rises and sets, in the way our own bodies were designed. 

In Psalm 119:18, David asks God to open his eyes so that he could see wonderful things in God’s law. I asked God to open my eyes to His goodness. He did. I have so many reasons to be grateful every single day and so many reasons to praise Him!

We will find whatever we are seeking. If we are looking for negativity, we will find it. It we are focused on finding blessings, we will find them. 

One thing I know without a doubt, if you ask God to help you see all of His beautiful handiwork, He will open your eyes. There are so many reasons to be grateful to God. Thanking God for the small things helped even more than I anticipated. I began to see more and more blessings everyday. I felt more gratitude. I felt encouraged. 

What are you grateful for today? I would love to hear what God has opened your eyes to so that you may continue to praise Him even when your heart is hurting.