What Happens When Good Invades Your Life

by Sandra Allen Lovelace      @SandraALovelace      #WallflowerWomen

Psalm 136 was the morning’s reading. Four clicks on her iPhone and Keisha was looking at verse 1. As usual, she scanned through the whole passage to get a feel for how much effort she’d have to apply. “Hmmph. The same line repeats,” she thumbed up and down, “in each verse.” The quiet apartment absorbed her whisper.

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good.
For His loving kindness is everlasting.* [emphasis mine]

Dutiful and diligent, also as usual, she pulled her feet up onto the cushion of their new IKEA wing chair. The cheery colors of the fern pattern lightened her spirits as she read through all twenty-six verses. Her eyes slid to the hyacinth on the end table and she breathed in its purple fragrance.

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good.

More minutes passed than she counted, as tension surged across her consciousness.

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good.

When she reached for her notebook, the mechanical pencil rolled to the floor with a clatter. A whoomph pulled her lips downward as she stretched to retrieve the runaway.

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good.

She jotted the date and reference then her notes.

• God of gods, Lord of lords
• made the world, rescued His people from bondage
• swept away pursuers, led them through wilderness
• removed every obstacle to deliver the Land as promised
• remembered His chosen ones, freed and cared for them

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good.

Impressions from the God-breathed words settled around her heart. The LORD is the very definition of goodness. Good is who He is and all He does. He can never be or do anything that’s non-good. His goodness is expressed in how He made the world and rescued His people from slavery. How He swept the Egyptians to their doom and led His people through the desert. That He dethroned kings to established His nation in the Promised Land. As He cherished His chosen ones with freedom and provision.

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good.

Confirmation and confidence came. And God IS good to me, His Christ-bought daughter.

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good.

The emotional constraints of unending confusion, unanswered questions, unfathomable loneliness, unreasonable criticism, and more fell away—released by the penetrating, undeniable truth that God IS good. His every touch on her life expressed His good toward her, even if she didn’t understand. Her heart swelled with gratitude. Tears of joy spilled down her cheeks as her voice raised in praise.

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good.

What challenges do you face, burdens do you carry?
Have you applied the absolute truth to them that God IS good?

May His Word transform your life,

Sandra

 

*Psalm 136:1 NASB