Crowded Kindnesses

At the age of 110, in his final speech to the young nation of Israel, Joshua reminds the Israelites that God "gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant." (Joshua 24:13) In other words, it was all by the grace and goodness of God! He gave them the land; He gave them the victories over their enemies; And He gave them the gift of being His chosen people. They did nothing to earn it or deserve it. It was all just an example of the Lord's extravagant, amazing grace and goodness.

How quickly they would forget. How quickly we forget. I am so convicted how problems and pain can allow resentment or a sense of entitlement rush in and rob us of our joy and peace and security in Christ. Rather than complaining when we face health challenges or financial difficulties or relational struggles, we need to press in to the Lord who is the source of everything, absolutely everything we possess and enjoy in our lives. I worry and fret over one of my children...and forget that God in His grace, gave me that precious, eternal little soul. We have one expense after another involving broken, older cars...and forget to thank the Lord for giving us cars and a city where there are roads that we can drive upon and eyes and hands and feet so we have the ability to drive those cars. We have food to eat, friends and family to love, books to read, schools and work to attend, churches in which to worship freely, nature to enjoy...We are so blessed by our extraordinary, extravagant God! Might we look for those superabundant blessings rather than focus upon the few things which we feel we lack.

Alexander Maclaren put it this way: "Seek to cultivate a buoyant, joyous sense of the crowded kindnesses of God in your daily life." Today, help us Jesus to cultivate that sense of Your crowded kindnesses. Help us not to blithely pass them by and thereby miss the wonder of your graciousness and generosity and the overwhelming gratitude it will engender in our hearts. To You be the glory.