Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Have you ever had a relationship where the person just seemed to be very negative and just saw the bad things and didn't remember all the good things that you'd done? Those relationships can be difficult. But when it comes to our relationship with God, I wonder how much we take time to actually think about all the good things He's done and not dwell on the bad things of life, but just remember what He's done.
I love what we find in Psalm 103 and verse 1, it says, "Let all that I am praise the Lord; with my whole heart, I will praise Him and praise His holy name." I wonder how often we're there, in a place where we can praise the Lord. The beauty of this Psalm, specifically in Psalm 103, is the psalmist unpacks even more of what this looks like. Why is he praising the Lord? Why is he feeling this overwhelming part of praising? Praising where he's at in life, what he is experiencing, and his perspective on things? I love how he unpacks it.
Never Forget the Good Things
He goes on in verse 2. This is what he says. He says, "Let all that I am praise the Lord. May I never forget the good things He does for me." I wonder how much we can project on God what I was saying about relationships and how sometimes we hear a lot of negative things from people instead of focusing on the good things in people.
I wonder how much we do that with God, where we take time and actually say, I don't ever want to forget all the good things He's done for me. We probably forgot some of the good things He did for us yesterday because now we're focusing on- Lord, what are you going to do today? What are the positive things? We want a great day and forget the good things He did even just yesterday or the day before.
God's Amazing Gifts to Us
But I love how he goes on to say, “He forgives all my sins.” We've had relationships where if you do them wrong- it could be a mistake, could be not intentional- and it's held against you and that's difficult. But God, our perfect, holy, righteous God forgives us of our sins. In fact, Scripture says He casts our sin as far as the East is from the West. Never to touch, or like the deepest ocean, He casts it into places we could never go. I love how God says that He will forgive our sins.
I would love for that to sink in for a moment, because it's our sin that nailed His Son to the cross, and He's willing to forgive us of all of our sins. And he goes on to say in the next verse, He redeems me from death. I just talked to somebody not too long ago, and they had a near-death experience.
One of the biggest things they kept saying over and over again is goodness. Every single day I live, I have a whole different lens on because I look at every situation, every circumstance, every thing I get to experience today or the next day is something I didn't think I would be able to have because I thought I was going to die.
He's rescued us from death into eternal life. Imagine if we lived every day with that lens and that perspective of a near-death experience and then being redeemed from death. Lastly, he says, He fills my life with good things. And it's all this context that drove the author of this psalm to say, praise the Lord.
A Practical Way to Remember
I knew a couple that would take time and get an empty jar, a large empty jar, and they would write on little pieces of paper the good things God was doing. They would drop it into this jar and over time, over the year, they would see this jar continue to fill more, and more, and more. It was a great visual of all the good things that God was doing for them. And guess what? I guarantee every time they walk past it, it caused them to praise the Lord.
I would encourage you take some time to really whatever that could look like tangibly, whether it's the jar or something else. Take some time and reflect back on all the good things God's done for you, and I think it will cause you to praise Him. Not just praise Him, but praise Him with all your heart. I encourage you to take some time to do that today.
