Gratitude Guides Us To Goodness

Daily Gratitude Year 6- Day 163: Today, I am grateful gratitude guides us to goodness. 

I believe gratitude helps guide our mind and hearts to the goodness of the Lord. It is good for our souls and reveals so much about His love. Our gratitude pleases God... and it changes us. 

Psalm 27 is an amazing song of King David.

David... the boy who defended his people with a slingshot and a stone. David was the one who comforted King Saul with his music and married Saul's daughter, Michal at her request (1 Samuel 18:20-27). David was a best friend... like a brother... to Jonathan, the King's son. David became the hated target of the king. Talk about the complicated life. 

Saul's hatred and jealousy toward David and unstable moods made life difficult for all around them. I am so awed and encouraged by the way David managed the trials in his life. I wonder when he wrote Psalm 27? Was it a lifesong he kept in his heart from many years, before writing it down? 

I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. -Psalm 27:13-14

I should memorize this Psalm to recall on tough days. It is a good one. It is packed full of the reality of life's troubles. Still, our God is bigger. In fact, he is wants to draw us closer as we bow, like David, to the sovereign reality that His big picture is not see by us. He wants us to be hungry for time with him. He longs for us to crave him like chocolate and coffee. He wants to be our first love. 

David had a heart that beat for His Lord. He did not always understand his ways, but he would pause to reflect on God's goodness, even when life was not going so well. His faithful heart pleased the Lord. 

We used to sing a children's song called "Davey, Davey" and the chorus was "I want a heart that beats for you."  I think we grown ups loved it as much as the kids.
  
"I remain confident of this... I will see the goodness of the Lord."

I love David's optimism. But it was not through rose colored glasses. Oh, no! He had tasted the goodness of the Lord, but he knew it didn't exempt him from problems. What he did know, is that when nothing was going right, he had a Great God who would... in time... make it right. 

Earworm is singing, "Everything's gonna be alright."  And my mind wanders to the quote... "If it isn't alright... it isn't the end." 

There are more chapters to be written in our stories.Just like David's. This might be our worst day, but it isn't our last day. And when we do face our last day, and we know Christ as Lord... that last day is the door to our first breath of heaven. It is why Paul was so confident that live or die... we win when we know Jesus. 

"I remain confident of this... I will see the goodness of the Lord." 

We can continue to collect daily gratitude so that we can read, re-read and revel in his radical, redeeming, rescuing love. ( I can't help it... I adore alliteration.)

Today, I am grateful gratitude guides us to goodness.