The Goodness of God

All my life You have been  faithful

All my life You have been so, so good

With every breath that I am able

I will sing of the goodness of God.

These are some of the lines of one song I was singing the whole week. I was singing the lines and I was indeed reminded of how the goodness of God shaped my life. I am now at an age where I can confidently say that I have seen a lot of things in life, I have been to so many places, I have been in so many struggles, and I am what I am today, I am where I am, because of the goodness of God.

Mother's Day was celebrated recently, and I am grateful that my late Mama was a praying mother. She did not have a lot of material things to give us, but she made sure to teach us that we needed to fear God, and that the fear of God was the beginning of wisdom. She prayed for her family, and because she prayed, the goodness of God prevailed and me and my siblings today have become what we are because of that.

A couple of weeks ago I started to feel pain on the upper right side of my abdomen. It wasn't going away after several days, so I went to the doctor to have it checked. Upon telling the doctor my symptoms, I was told that it might be gallstones, and he recommended that I have a full abdomen ultrasound to confirm. I scheduled the procedure for the next weekend, and during that whole week while I was waiting, I kept praying that they would not find any stones in my gall bladder when the  time comes.

Going through that process, I was reminded of the verse in the bible in Psalm 27 that goes, "I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." Having experienced the goodness of God before, I was confident that He would come through for me yet again. I just kept declaring that if there were gallstones, that they would be melted miraculously. It's tough thinking about the possibility of having to undergo surgery and all that, so I banked on the faithfulness of God.

Saturday came and I went back to the clinic for the ultrasound. I was told that the result would be ready in half an hour, so I waited for it and asked my doctor to interpret the results for me. All of my internal organs were healthy, and they could not find any signs of gallstones! Praise the Lord! Again, the goodness of God brought me through another rough situation.

I also know of a family whose teenage daughter is going wayward. She left home for a few days, just sending her mom a text message that she was safe. The parents of course, not knowing where she was, were worried. I prayed and got down on my knees, praying for that girl, asking the Lord to take her out of danger, asking God to have mercy on her and her parents whose hearts are so heavy. I pray everyday, but getting down on my knees is not something I do everyday. When I get down on my knees, I surrender everything to God, I acknowledge that there is nothing else I can do and I ask Him to take over. Sunday at lunch time the girl came back home.

I am sure her parents prayed for her too, and so with relatives who knew of their situation. It wasn't just me. But you see, here you see the goodness of God at work yet again, touching that teenage girl to have the sense to go back home. This situation is one every parent do not ever dream of having. Who wants their children to go wayward? No one in their right minds, and yet due to unforeseen circumstances, things happen, and all you can do is cry out to God to intervene.

I know the battle for this girl's future is not yet finished. I know I have to keep praying. I know that there are battles I cannot win on my own. That's when turn to God, the Maker of heaven and earth, and I am thankful that I can call Him my Father. He is the One who can turn any situation around. He is the One, because of His mercy, love, and faithfulness, reaches out with His divine love and gets us out of the darkness.

And when we are desperate enough, when He knows that we have already done everything we humanly can, He comes and does His divine actions and comes through for us. You may be facing another battle today, and maybe you're not sure if you can win it. My advise is, let go, and let God.

How can I not sing this song, when all my life I have seen and experienced time and time again His never ending goodness and faithfulness? How can I not cry in thanksgiving when I witness miracles like that? I will always share about His goodness, I will always shout it from the rooftops, because it is because of His goodness that I am alive. And while I have breath, indeed, I will sing, I will declare the goodness of God.