Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Psalm 136:1
Finding someone who is overall a good person is not that difficult. Finding someone who is really good is much more difficult. In every person there are faults that pull one down from being a really good person. Sometimes those faults don’t look very large, while other times they cannot be overlooked at all, regardless of all the good things they attempt to do.
As the writer of this psalm points out that God’s mercy endures forever, he begins by telling the people to give thanks because God is good.
The world will often look at God and say that He is not really a good God at all. All that they can focus on is the pain and suffering that is going on in life and they wonder how God can allow it if He is really a good God. Many have walked away from God in times of pain, giving up on Him because He did not bring about some desired healing or rescue.
God is good even in the process of allowing suffering and pain. It is suffering and pain that pushes a person towards Him, to seek Him out for strength and direction in spite of all the pain and suffering. God uses the pain and suffering to build the character of a person into the image of Jesus.
His mercy and goodness show up in that no one deserves to be alive once a person has sinned one time. Every person has sinned and deserves only death, pain and suffering.
At the right times God brings about deliverance from pain and suffering. At all times God is right beside the person going through pain and suffering. In this a believer is to give thanks to God because He is good.
When you stop and think about your life and what God has allowed or not allowed and what He has done for you, you will see that He really is good. He is protecting you by not allowing some things and is building you by allowing other things to occur in your life. It is in this way that God has great mercy upon you, and He is good. Do not get angry with God but give thanks because He is good and only allows what is best for you to happen.
Give thanks for He is good and His mercy endures forever!
Today I pray that you will know Jesus as your Lord and Savior; that you will see the goodness of God in your life; that you will see the mercy of God in your life; and that you will give thanks to the Lord at all times and in all things.
Picture by Jamie Street on Unsplash
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