The Particular Goodness of God in our lives 

In the last two posts I have looked at the importance of intentionally focusing on the Pervasive Goodness of God in Creation and the Specific Goodness of God in Salvation.  In this post I want to look at the importance of recounting the particular goodness of God in our lives.

In Psalm 106 (which starts with a proclamation of the goodness of God), the psalmist records various historical incidents where God saved Israel from sins and their consquences - examples of the particular goodness of God.  This encouraged the psalmist to ask God to save them from a particular situation (v47).

In Psalm 107, the psalmist encourages 'the redeemed of the Lord to tell their story' (v2) and then relates additional stories of how God acted in particular situations to save people - more examples of the particular goodness of God.

Many people who have been following God for a while are able to look back and recall particular instances where they experienced the goodness of God - a special provision, the time they became a Christian, when God brought various people into their lives, or an answered prayer.

So here is a third way we can keep the goodness of God clearly before us - we can recount instances of the particular goodness of God from our past.  The sadness is that we can often go for years without retelling these stories.  Maybe its time to sit down with someone and share these instances of God's goodness with each other.  If you don't have many of your own you can identify, you will be blessed by listening to other people's stories.

In summary, being aware of the goodness of God is a vital foundation for our spiritual lives.  We can enhance our ongoing awareness of God's goodness by focusing on the general General, Specific and Particular examples goodness of God through:
 

• Scriptures

• Songs

• Science

• Scenery

• (Hi)story

• (The Lord's) Supper, and

• (Our) Stories

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