Sharing the Goodness

I am a blogger. I enjoy writing blog posts (even if I'm the only one who reads them;) and I especially love reading other blogs. The ones I follow are made up of people I know, or knew, from my old church and to me, are great examples of how to live godly lives. The people behind the posts are godly people whom I desire to live and model my life after, and they are great examples of what it means to follow a person as that person follows Christ. Usually their posts are "inspirational" in the sense that they encourage me, challenge me and teach me things that I haven't known or thought of before.
All that to say that I recently read a post on one of the blogs I follow and it made a distinction about God's mercy and kindness, and how those two characteristics of God are crucially intertwined with one another.
It reads:

"God’s goodness and mercy will run after us, find us, and minister to our needs wherever we are. We will never be bereft of God’s love (Rom. 8:35-39).

God’s goodness speaks of the many gifts that He showers upon his creation and church. It is all that makes life bearable and beneficial (Acts 14:17). God’s goodness crested in the gift of His Son as our loving Savior (Titus 3:4-7). God’s mercy alternatively speaks of God’s goodness coming out to us despite our sin (Lam. 3:22-23). It is that which allows for God’s goodness to be shown, in mercy God shows kindness.

These glorious actions of God complement each other. In God’s goodness, we get what we don’t deserve, and in God’s mercy we don’t get what we do deserve. Not goodness alone for we are rebels in need of clemency. Not mercy alone for we need many things beside forgiveness. In the one, we have provision for all our needs, and in the other, we a have pardon for all our sins. Therefore, as a child of God, don’t be afraid to step out into an unknown future, because you are being followed by God’s goodness and mercy."

I hope this little excerpt will encourage you and teach you as much as it did me.

Enjoying the read,
Em