Give Thanks to the Lord, because He is good!

God’s love and goodness

“Give Thanks to the Lord, because He is good and His love is eternal.
Let the people of Israel say, “His Love is Eternal”
Let the priests of God say, “His love is eternal”
Let all who worship Him say, His love is eternal””
Psalm 118

God is good and the world is filled with His goodness. Seeking, acknowledging, recognizing, understanding, and discerning the Goodness in the world is a gift from God;
and it is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Seeking goodness gives hope
in the life. Acknowledging goodness gives meaning to the life. Recognizing goodness provides inner joy. Understanding goodness provides happiness and motivation in life.
Discerning goodness leads to the will of God in life.
Appreciating goodness makes one to accept and value oneself and others for what they are. Admitting goodness in the world is the acknowledgment and profession of faith in witnessing the creation of God and His image in His creations.
God is good and His creation and creatures are good because He created them and He found them good, as He was pleased with His creations (Refer Creation account in Bible).


It is easy to appreciate the goodness when everything looks bright, beautiful, and fruitful. How to see the goodness in life when things seems to reflect the opposite of the above mentioned state?. Is it possible to appreciate goodness in the face of difficult and demanding situations? Is it possible to recognize goodness in conflicting, contradictory, confusing, and hatred infused modern worldviews and perspectives?

The answer is yes and that takes faith courage, love, hope, and trust in God, which will inflame oneself with a zeal to seek God’s presence and His goodness in day today life situations. First, to identify goodness in
everything one must become like a child or posses a
childlike heart. Only a open mind with freedom in
thinking can appreciate goodness in simple life. A
child believes the parents with out any questions or
doubt. in addition, the child has a fearless heart to
appreciate the goodness. It has no fear or
vengence. A child gets excited about all the things it sees or experiences, because the child considers everything as good. This state of mind results in positive attitude. This positive attitude opens the eyes for goodness. Thus having, developing, or maintaining a child like heart and attitude is the primary essentiality to identify the goodness around oneself. Another requirement to understand the Goodness of God in the midst of life situations is acknowledging and trusting God’s presence all the time. It is a state of mind or disposition of life or an attitude towards life; a total surrender to the will of God; a continuous search for God’s presence in day today life. The church history is filled with the life testimonies of saints who spend their life in the mission of finding God’s presence in fellow men and creatures. The men and women who are inflamed with the love of
God has ability to radiate, relate, recover, recognize, and appreciate the goodness in everything. This is a supreme quality of faith, which is manifested in all
the saint’s life. They consider everything is good. They
strived to seek, find, appreciate and admire goodness in
all the situations, men, things, events, materials,
associations, interactions and process of their life.

Recognizing the goodness in God's creation is the
acknowledgement of God's presence in the fellow men and creatures.
When some one is able to identify the God’s presence
in fellow men, then the person will be able to develop great reverence
for the people for the love of God. The natural
respect for the people and emerging love for the
fellow men is the outcome of the recognizing goodness
in fellowmen. This understanding stimulates or
motivates oneself to serve men for the love of God
with the recognition of that service to men is service
to God. Seeking goodness in fellow men gives understanding of
the worthiness of the others or their importance to
one's life and society. Recognizing the fellowmen as
ones' own self is the sign of searching goodness in
them.

Understanding the goodness of others will enable
oneself to respect others as himself; love others as
one would love one's self; initiate the interaction,
association, friendship, fellowship, with the motive
of support in helping each other. Searching goodness in all the situation will eliminate
the failure and depression. Searching Goodness in
suffering gives meaning to the life. It also
strengthens one's soul by endurance.


Discerning goodness will pave foundation for the
forgiveness by understanding the common position and
favor of God's presence for all the creation. seeking
goodness will eliminate the hatred. Exploration of
goodness will propose the optimistic image of Father
God. The forgiving nature emerges from the love of
God. One can forgive one another for many reason but
forgiving for God's love has the power to overcome the
evil. It is interesting to note in the life even the people whom you consider as an obstacle or a hurdle for your growth or even who hurt you one way or other has a purpose
In your life and some are placed with the divine purpose to demand the manifestation virtue of goodness from you. Many difficult situations can be transformed in to productive situations with a simple trust in God. Many closed doors can make you explore and grow exponentially with new opportunities in life with a simple trust in the will of God. The situations you consider as difficult today may become as accomplishments tomorrow. The suffering of any nature has a potential to become a perfect offering to God, which can invoke mercy and forgiveness for sins. Living simple acceptance of the reality and people in the life for the love God is the best treadmill for the soul. A person who has the capability to see goodness in happiness and sufferings has the wisdom to reflect God’s glory in all his experiences. Such people are called as saints.


It is through faith and God's love, great heroes of faith were able to see the
goodness in everything they saw, handled or associated.
It is through the love of God mother Teresa of
Calcutta was able to see the goodness and worthiness
of slum destitute. It is because of God's love St.
Antony of Padua was able to see the goodness in desert
and animals in the wilderness. It is due to the zeal for
God's love St, Francis of Assisi was able to see the
goodness in the nature and poor. It is God’s love
made disfigured lepers' faces as fresh roses to the
eyes of saints. It is the love of God, which enabled Bro Lawrence to find goodness in serving simple services. It is the love of God moved St. Vincent de Paul
to serve the poor. There are numerous and multitudes of saints operated
with God's love and demonstrated the heroic service to
men and God through the recognition of goodness in men and nature.

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