BLESS THE LORD O MY SOUL!

          “I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. May my meditation be sweet to Him; I will be glad in the Lord.” Psalm 104:33-34
        
        As I read Psalm 104 yesterday morning, I was filled with awe of God’s goodness, His provision, His downright love for His creation. God takes care of everything both small and great. He provides food and life to all. God is good! This Psalm reminded me of the fact that God is indeed sovereign. He is in charge, He is in control. There are those that I have heard refute this statement. They say that how can God be in control and bad things happen? How is God in control when a woman is raped, when someone goes through some tragic circumstance? But you see I believe that even then, in the good and in the bad God is in charge. He uses both the good and the bad to draw people closer to Him. He uses the negative sometimes to get us to wake up and pay attention to Him. Job could tell you about his bad experience but what he did not know is that God had allowed it because God had the confidence that he could handle it. Imagine that! God allowing bad in our lives just to show off to the devil how much we His people love Him and would not give up on Him!
         I encourage us to focus on who God is. He alone is God there is none like Him. He is loving, kind, patient, He cares sometimes when no one else does. He understands when no one else does. He has your back when everyone has given up on you. He sustains you, He keeps you whether or not you deserve it. I think God lives just to love us and care for us. 
 
          “He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and vegetation for the service of man, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine that makes glad the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread which strengthens man’s heart. (vv. 14-15)
 
           Everything God does is to make us happy, because He loves us. God has a perfect plan for each of us. It is not dependent on how smart we are, our looks, or our possessions because if that were the case many of us would never be blessed and life would never seem worth living. But God created each of us with a plan in mind. God is a God of purpose. Nothing He does is by accident or happenstance. None of us are mistakes or errors that need to be erased. And if God takes care of the tiniest and most insignificant of creatures, how much more does He love and have us in His mind?
         No. We can’t beat God’s goodness to us. In fact, we would be ungrateful if we didn’t thank God every single day for waking us up, for blessing us with new blessings and for loving us. So, when you feel tempted to fuss and complain about how unfair life is, about everything that is not going the way you want, remember that there is a God who loves you, wants the best for you. Instead of focusing on who or what other people are not that makes you unhappy try focusing on God, who is faithful, who is fair, who is great, who is kind, who is merciful, who NEVER ever fails!