Sometimes I think we get so bogged down, overwhelmed, distraught, discouraged, and overloaded, etc. by our circumstances and the trials of this life that we neglect to recognize, acknowledge, and praise the Lord for His unfathomably wonderful and boundless love, care, kindness, and goodness He bestows upon His followers. The Lord never ceases to amaze me in His endless love, grace, mercy, greatness, goodness, generosity, and the exceeding lengths He goes to pour out His love upon us in seemingly endless ways – right down to the very smallest of details. Like when it comes to my pretty highlighters testimony.
I am totally exhausted as I write this having been woken by God in the middle of the night just days ago after 4 hours of sleep at which time the Lord led me to pack up quickly and evacuate with my 2 beloved ministry dogs in advance of the hurricane headed for Florida. Twelve hours in the car later, three hotels in two days, problems at one hotel, poor sleep each night, still tired later, I arrived at my current hotel ready for serious rest. God blessed me with a quiet place, a wonderful room I have stayed in before, and kind new staff.
Then came my desire to get lots of rest, some good nutrition, and spend some time studying the Bible. I go through seasons not writing in my Bibles. Other times I love to highlight passages to no end. Now I wanted to highlight to no end. But the highlighters I had ordered online had been delivered to my rental in Florida just after I evacuated! And today when I went to mail my rent check and get groceries I was too tired to go anywhere for highlighters. I would have to wait.
But then as I stood at the front desk I noticed big thick yummy delicious highlighters in lots of bright colors behind the desk. I figured I could ask to borrow one or 2 for a little bit. Long story short, the manager had just recently purchased tons of them. He told me I could take as many as I liked – and ended up telling me I could keep them.
Now in the grand scheme of things and to the world at large this little testimony would seem meaningless. But to me it shows how extreme is God’s love for us. He knew my heart, He knew my desire, He knew my exhaustion, He knew how many issues I have been addressing lately, He knew all my emotions concerning some challenging things in my life, and He knew this incredibly small thing to me was an incredibly big blessing – and more than anything reminded me of His love for me.
Friend, would you please open wide your eyes and heart and recognize God’s love and goodness each and every day – and thank Him for it? No matter the trials you may be facing, would you please remember to be thankful and to express your thanksgiving to God and to tell others? Oh, may it be so!
“Praise the LORD! Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” Psalms 106:1 NKJV
“I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth; Yes, I will praise Him among the multitude.” Psalms 109:30 NKJV