surely goodness

"Surely Your goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Psalm 23:6

I read somewhere recently that in this particular verse, the Hebrew word for follow is radaph. Literally translated, radaph means "to pursue, to run after, to chase, to hunt down".

Though hunt down sounds a bit traumatic I really love this word, everything it entails. If I am being completely honest, as usual, lately I have not felt very chased by the goodness of God. I have felt tired, frustrated, alone, the opposite of good. But tonight as I spent some time in prayer and worship, all I could mutter was God you are good. You are so good. And His Spirit took me to this verse. That is when it came alive for me. The words I had been reading left the page and took over me. I felt chased, I felt pursued, I felt sought out, charted and tracked by the love and presence and blessing of God.

I am not just talking about blessings like wealth, and health bla bla. I am talking about his joy peace kindness love mercy. All the good stuff. The heart of what God is. It fills my stomach with butterflies to think about. That throughout my day, my sometimes tear jerking hot and sweaty day while I may be running this way or that, literally or in my heart and mind, no matter where I go, his goodness and mercy are not only behind me but they overtake me.

That my dear friends in something worth resting in. I don't want to go any further in it. I just want to sit there. Which is basically where the writer goes with that verse..."and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." When the love and grace of God overcome you, the only thing to do is rest in it, dwell in it, soak it up. It may be at 5am as your alarm goes off and you are already dreading your day. It  may be at 5pm when the kids need to be fed, and dinner isn't ready and your husband had a bad day. It may be the night before a final, a work presentation, as you travel, as you tell the children for the millionth time to not eat chalk. But it happens. It finds you. He finds you, because he knows where you are.

Surely. That word says to me with assurance, "well of course..." Of course the goodness of God is chasing you today. Of course its pursuing your every move. Surely. Because He loves you. And nothing delights him more than to overwhelm you with himself.

That is my mini thought for the day. It has nothing to do with my day except that at every challenge, road block, frustrating tear filled moment, he reminded me of his goodness pursuing me. Write it on your heart, your bathroom mirror and your dashboard. Radaph- the goodness of God chases me today.