By: Mike Kelly
Bryan, Ohio
I love to worship. To be honest, I’d rather spend Sunday morning worshipping for 30 minutes than listening to a 30-minute sermon. Weird, I know, coming from a guy who has preached several thousand sermons.
God’s Word is necessary to our growth and maturity in our faith. But when my emotions are engaged through music, I feel like I am in His presence.
I feel closer to God during my worship than I generally feel during my devotions and study times. The songs in The Psalms often reflect this same sentiment.
For example, Psalm 16:11 reads: “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
So, I’m going to do something different for October. I’m going to use a different song’s words each week to craft this message.
I’m choosing 4 songs that are meaningful to me: Amazing Grace and 3 contemporary worship songs: today’s “Goodness of God”, “Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant,” and “The Truth”. I hope you find a little bit of God’s presence in these.
The Goodness of God was written by Jenn Johnson and others at Bethel Music, with Jenn being the first to sing it. It begins with a proclamation: “I love You, Lord. For Your mercy never fails me. All my days, I’ve been held in Your hands.”
Do you understand the depth of the statement? God’s mercy (that which keeps him from treating us like we deserve) is renewed every day. It will never run out. There will never be a day when God says, “That’s enough! Out you go!” He will always show us mercy.
Additionally, every second of every day, God is with us. And more than that, he has been holding us in his hand. We have never been alone or rejected, regardless of the life we’ve lived. Think on that!
Once we came into a relationship with him, he looked over us and cared for us. Even in those times when we thought God was angry with us or had turned his back on us or worse, given up on us, He was faithful.
“I love Your voice. You have led me through the fire in the darkest night.” God has been there, no matter how dark life seemed, he was still there, caring for us and often carrying us through the fires and floods.
I don’t know about you, but there have been many times when I’ve curled up in a ball, overwhelmed with life, ready to give up. But then I’d hear him.
Just his voice in my head, reminding me of who I am to him and who he is. He is right there even when I’m terrified. “You are close like no other, I’ve known You as a Father, I’ve known You as a Friend. And I have lived in the goodness of God.”
That phrase “I’ve known you as a friend” is transformative when you get hold of it. I didn’t choose my parents or siblings, but I get to choose my friends.
Imagine that the God of the Universe, who made all and in whom all creation has its being, chose ME to be his friend. And the good news is that he chose you, too. As someone once joked, our pictures are on God’s refrigerator.
And he has never let us down. “‘Cause all my life You have been faithful. And all my life You have been so, so good.” “Your goodness is running after; it’s running after me.”
I have run long and hard to escape God at certain times in my life, but he never stopped loving me and even blessing me. He never let me out of his sight. It’s a truth that we can never outrun God.
Psalm 139:7-10: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”
The song concludes with “With every breath that I am able, Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God.” Let that be our declaration as we come to understand his steadfast faithfulness to us. Let us sing and proclaim the Goodness of God.
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Mike Kelly is the founding pastor of Bryan’s Grace Community Church (retired) and Board Chairman of Bryan’s Sanctuary Homeless Shelter and Williams County’s Compassion (free) Medical Clinic.