Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:23-26
“You are a Father, all powerful and infinitely wise and good and tender. You say to us as your children, so frail we are and hardly able to walk expect with our hands in Yours, ‘All that you ask I will give you if only you ask with confidence.’
If we ask You for dangerous playthings You refuse them in goodness for us, and you console us by giving us other things for our good. If we ask You to put us where it would be dangerous for us to be, You do not give us what is not for our good, but You give us something really for our welfare, something that we would ask for ourselves if our eyes were open.
You take us by the hand and lead us, not there where we would wish to go, but there where it is best for us to be.”
Richard Foster in Celtic Daily Prayer (New York: Harper Collins, 2002) 652.
Today’s post resets our perspective on God’s goodness toward us, which when we focus on it, shapes our generosity toward others.
Notice that when we desire dangerous playthings or to go to dangerous places, He does not beat us up but gives us and guides us to goodness.
This is why the Psalmwriter elsewhere says that surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life because God pursues us with these traits.
So, what about us? Will we allow others to chase what is dangerous or will we pursue them with goodness? When we do the latter we imitate the goodness of God.