These Are the Good Old Days

 

"These are the good old days" 

read a sign hanging on the wall of a long time acquaintance's house. 

Over the next few days I just kept thinking about that sign. It wasn't my particular style of décor so I honestly was not sure why it grabbed at my heart so much... but as I got thinking about it, I realized that it resonated so deeply because in a way, it's the same message I've been trying to be very intentional about living out over the last several months in my life:  having gratitude, being content about where I am in life and trusting God for what's might be next.  

It can be really hard when you're feeling anxious, unsure about what God has next for you, when you see God answering prayers in your friend's lives and your prayers for your friend's lives but it doesn't seem like you can see Him working in your own. 

 It's hard to admit to struggling with those thoughts and it's hard to get yourself out of that mentality sometimes... So I was reading Psalm 86 and it made me breathe a sigh of relief.

Psalm 86 is a prayer of David, it can't be placed at a specific time in his life (which I find all the more reassuring), but as I was reading it I found three things that spoke to me. 

Throughout the psalm David asks God to: guard his life, save him, hear him, have mercy, bring joy, teach him, and give him an undivided heart (V. 2, 3, 4, 6, 11, 16) 

It takes a lot of trust to ask God for those things. Trusting that He is willing and able do them, that He is pleased and loves to do all those things and more for those who love Him! This is a song about trusting God because He loves us. 

Secondly, David spends the next part of the psalm acknowledging who God is: forgiving, good, abounding in love, compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, faithful, the One true God (V. 5, 10, 15)

Lastly, David records all these pleas, acknowledges and worships God for who He is, for what He's done and still at the very end of the psalm (v17) asks: 

"Give me a sign of your goodness..."

"Give me a sign!"

It's a relief to know that I'm not the only one who knows and trusts God but still sometimes struggles and needs to ask to see a sign of His goodness. 

"Give me a sign of your goodness...for you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me"

 He has done it in the past, He will do it in the future. 

These are the good old days, life is good and God is good, I love who and what I have in my life *right now*, He is working and I will keep asking for signs of His goodness while I wait for what He's got next, knowing that these days are good too!