Celebrate God’s goodness in your life!

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life … “

Psalm 23:6 KJV

Ever feel like God’s mercies are relentlessly pursuing you through life? You should – because they are!

Joanie and I just spent a rich and hallowed time mounting trophies on the walls of our hearts. We’ve been remembering some of God’s most obvious and important gifts in our lives. Here’s just a partial list of the blessings God has given us.

• Joanie grasped the meaning and power of the cross at five years of age. God’s mercy!
• I experienced a supernatural healing of a serious heart murmur at ten that should have affected my physical condition for the remainder of my life. God’s mercy!
• Joanie came home early from a trip to attend a meeting in Chicago that I traveled home from my uncle’s in Minnesota to attend. We met at that meeting and although she was only twelve and I was fourteen, it set the course of the rest of our lives. God’s mercy!
• On two occasions I had career offers that would have taken us far from God’s intended course for our lives. His careful directions to us at those times kept us from serious mistakes. God’s mercy!
• God has allowed us to serve in pastoral capacities in several great churches over the years where we made hundreds of ‘forever friends’ and found wonderful fulfillment as we ministered. God’s mercy!
• We got to serve for a decade in one of the most powerful and effective mission organizations in the world, and to spend three years with Promise Keepers affecting the lives of Godly men. God’s mercy!
• And finally, He worked through many to ignite the ministry of Fresh Heart Ministries in our lives, enabling us to carry out some very specific and exciting Kingdom tasks over the last eleven years. And he has put some very wonderful people in our lives who have made it possible financially. God’s mercy!

And what about you? Are God’s mercies in your life being remembered? We all have the power and ability to remember what we choose to remember. If our preferred memories are only of disappointments, defeats or past problems, then we’re shortchanging God and his goodness.

This week choose to celebrate God’s ongoing goodness in your life. Both his goodness and his daily mercies are meant to bring a smile to our faces and put encouragement into our lives as we look forward.

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

Lamentations 3:22,23 ESV