5 Dynamic Ways to Personally Experience God’s Goodness
5 Dynamic Ways to Personally Experience God’s Goodness
When our children were small, we used to take a lot of long, boring road trips.
For the most part, our kids grew up in the days without mobile devices and pull-down televisions to watch in the car.
So, in short, they got rather fidgety. On these long trips, we would make up fun games to keep the kids from getting restless.
Car Games We Played
First, we played the alphabet game where you looked for different letters of the alphabet on all the signs and billboards that you would pass.
Also, we played the license plate game. Someone had given us these cute little game boards to use for the game. While driving, each time you saw a license plate from a different state, you would mark it on your board. The goal was to find as many states as you possibly could on one trip.
We played the count the color of the cars game. In this game, you would choose a color and then count how many cars you saw with that color. I always chose white because it seemed like there were a lot of white cars on the road.
Another game my kids liked was the 20-Question game, We would think up a movie and then everybody would ask questions trying to guess what movie you chose. The kids especially loved this game!
What made all of these games fun was that they captured our attention. Truly, we would get so focused on the games that the miles would pass by quickly.
(One funny side note… Every once in a while, when we’re on a long road trip, one of our grown children will suggest we play one of these games.)
Focus is Essential
As you go back and think about all of these different games, they have one thing in common. That common element is – focus.
As we traveled, we would focus on the game to make the trip more enjoyable.
Truly, focus is essential in all areas of life.
Perhaps, we can think about focus in spiritual terms.
If you were to look up the word “focus” in the dictionary, you would find this simple definition. Your focus is the center of your activity, your attraction, and your attention.
So, what if we decided today to begin to make God and His goodness our focus?
What if we turned our activity, our attraction, and our attention to the goodness of God?
I believe we might get an awesome perspective of our almighty God that we haven’t had in a long time. (Maybe as we never have had!)
Today I want to give you 5 dynamic ways to experience the goodness of God personally. These are simple and very easy to use.
First, to experience the dynamic goodness of God in your life, look around.
Just look around.
Get off your phone. Turn off the TV. Get off your computer or your iPad, and look around you.
To begin with, you might notice the amazing people that God has put in your life and how good He has been to you by giving you those people.
Likely, you work with amazing people, you live with amazing people, and you worship with amazing people. And in those people, God has been good to you.
Also, as you look around, you may see God’s amazing creation. He has been good to us by giving us sunshine and plants and trees and oceans and mountains. We see the goodness of God all around us in nature.
Another way you may see the goodness of God around you is as you look at your stuff. The fact that you have food a home and clothing and a way to get around illustrates that God is good. God has been good by giving you so many essential material things that help to make life better.
If you’d like to begin to experience more of God’s goodness in your life right now… just look around.
Secondly, to experience the dynamic goodness of God in your life, look to the Bible.
As we open the pages of God’s Word, we see the goodness of God in other people’s lives. We read about His goodness to those who have gone before us.
In particular, the Psalms give us so much insight into the goodness of God.
In Psalm 9:1 we read, “I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.”
According to Psalm 105:1-2, “Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts.”
In Psalm 100:1, we see, “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God.”
Also, in Isaiah 25:1 we read, “Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago.”
If we go over to Matthew 7:11, we read, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”
And, in James 1:17, we see, “Every good thing given, and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”
Over and over, the Bible declares God’s goodness in our lives and the lives of others.
To experience more of the goodness of God personally in our lives, we can open the pages of the Bible and read about it.
3rd, to experience the dynamic goodness of God in our lives, we can look back.
Think back to all the ways that God has protected you provided for you and blessed you.
In Old Testament days they participated in a ceremony called “Stones of Remembrance.” The people would collect these big rocks and they would serve as monuments to God’s faithfulness. (see Joshua 4:1-8).
Now, we don’t collect rocks anymore, but we can look through years of old pictures and photographs and see the goodness and the faithfulness of God.
We can think back to people that God has brought into our lives, jobs He’s provided, cars He’s given us, trips we’ve gotten to take, mission trips we’ve gotten to be involved in, and we can remember the goodness of God.
In Psalm 103:2, we are reminded, “Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me.”
To experience His goodness, we remember all of the ways He has taken care of us in the past.
If He took care of us then, He will also take care of us now and as we go forward.
4th, to experience the dynamic goodness of God in our lives, we can look around at His goodness in the lives of others.
How is He blessing and caring for our friends and family members?
Sure, it is easy to get FOMO! We see others doing amazing things and wish we were doing them.
But what if we looked at things differently?
The Bible tells us to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. (Romans 12:15)
What if we begin to rejoice with others?
And to celebrate and to encourage our friends in the good moments of their lives.
It’s sometimes pretty easy to weep with those who weep.
But can we do the second part? Can we rejoice when they are rejoicing and celebrating??
For example…
As I watch a long-single friend get married… I rejoice.
As a friend wins her battle with cancer… I celebrate too!
When a young couple gets invited to be the pastor and wife at a new church… I rejoice.
When one of my friends gets a great book deal and begins to share about her new resource that points people to Jesus… I rejoice.
If one of my friends begins to experience great growth in her business and can help more people… I want to rejoice with her.
Even when one of my friends gets to take a fabulous trip and go away to enjoy time with her husband… I want to learn to celebrate with her.
Why do this?
Because I’m witnessing the goodness of God all around me in the lives of others.
It’s not something to be jealous of, but it’s something to celebrate.
This quote that I found on Pinterest sums it up really – “Someone else’s success does not rob you of anything.” (author unknown)
Also, having watched your friends celebrate and have good things happen to them doesn’t take away from you getting to enjoy it as well.
It’s not either or. It’s not. They get great things, and we don’t.
Instead, It’s just this… God is good.
Because if God is good to them, He is also going to be and has been good to me.
Indeed, our God is just good – to us and those around us!
Finally, to experience the dynamic goodness of God in our lives, we look forward with faith.
We press on, believing God has incredible things for our future.
The words of Jeremiah 2911, propel us forward, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
Also, the words of Philippians 1:6 encourage us as we walk, “And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day Christ Jesus returns.”
It comes down to this… God is always taking care of me, He is taking care of me, and He will take care of me.
We can trust the goodness of God as we face our future.
This is only done by putting our complete faith hope and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is good.
What a Great Example They Were!
As I close, I want to mention two amazing people that I got to know in my lifetime.
One was my precious grandmother who lived to be 95 years old. She lived a simple life in a small town and always had a sweet smile and a peaceful spirit.
The other was my father-in-law, Vernon who lived to be almost 88. He was a gracious person with a hearty laugh and great joy.
Both were believers. Both loved their families. And both said something near the end of their lives that I will never forget.
In my paraphrase, this is what they said, “All of my life, God has taken good care of me. God has been so good to me.”
That’s the goal.
To live a full life and get to the end and be thankful to the God who carried you all the way through.
How do we do that? How do we live like that? Truly, I think we focus intentionally on the goodness of God.
5 Dynamic Ways to Personally Experience God’s Goodness
1st, we focus on God because of God’s goodness by looking around and seeing His handiwork and His creation.
2nd, we focus on the goodness of God by looking to the Bible. We see His goodness throughout all 66 books, and we are encouraged.
3rd, we focus on the goodness of God by looking back. We look back and see His hand through all of our days and we’re encouraged.
4th, we focus on the goodness of God by looking around and seeing the incredible goodness of God in the lives of our friends and family members. If He is good to them, He will also be good to us!
Finally, we focus on the goodness of God by looking down the road with faith that He will continue to be good to us.
A final story…
Many years ago, I taught in an all-boys school.
Before lunch, every day we would sing a prayer song as a group.
It was a simple song, but the words have stuck with me all these years.
“The Lord is good to me.
And so I thank the lord for givin’ me the things I need,
The sun and rain and apple seed.
Yes, he’s been good to me.”
(The Lord is Good to Me, Kim Gannon, Walter Kent)
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