Soul Scientist

I am my greatest limitation to a growing faith in my life.

I’m full of undying selfish arrogance which chokes out gratitude, courage, hope, and joy by refusing to receive, much less rely on, God’s goodness (see Psalm 37:5 and 52:8). I have that continual bent towards doing what isn’t good instead of what is good (see Romans 7:18). I can’t defeat that arrogance and self-centeredness, much less the more doubts, fears, and regrets that I wish weren’t in me.

But nothing is impossible for God.

God isn’t limited by my limits. He’s already defeated death, hell, and the grave. All of those, in me or before me, can only be overcome by the abundant goodness of my Good God at work in my life daily.

God alone can open my eyes to see continual reminders of this goodness in His creation. God alone can overcome my fear and cultivate faith in me.

Only God can completely assure me that He has done all this for me and will keep doing the same in me. Only God knows my limits, loves me still, and keeps wooing me to Him with that same abundant goodness He has stored up for me.

Psalm 31:19 ESVUK. Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind

Stored up – that very concept stops me in my tracks today. I can’t even begin to imagine the size or beauty of the contents of God’s storehouses of abundant goodness. Nor can I begin to understand the depths of God’s storehouses of abundant goodness. Yet God often pulls back a corner of the veil and gives me glorious glimpses of His abundant goodness poured out into my life and the lives of others (see 1 Corinthians 13:12).

Thank You, Father God, for the superabundance You alone can and do give (see Ephesians 3:20-21)!

God tells us in Scripture He brings the wind from His storehouses (see Psalm 135:7 and Jeremiah 10:13.) And if you’ve ever lived through a tornado, hurricane, or straight-line windstorm, you know well the furious power contained in wind and the potentially life-changing implications of the wind. Similarly, if you’ve ever lived through an impossible situation where you saw that touch of His miraculous power in the midst of a storm in life that you can’t stop or solve, you have experienced the life-changing results of His abundant goodness. Jesus’ powerful abundant goodness forever changed the life woman who touched His garment and was immediately healed in Matthew chapter 9. Just like the song says, she did see “His goodness all over [her] life” that day and every single day after that.

That woman in Matthew chapter 9 came in a hope that feared God more than the fear of living the rest of her days without healing. She left in a joy that worshipped God more than the joy of living the rest of her days with others now that she was no longer unclean.

I want that hope and that joy in my life today.

I may never experience a healing like that here on Earth. But faith in God can make my life in illness to be as full (or fuller yet!) than a life without illness. God makes the impossible possible (see Luke 1:37). God can make me thrive here in chronic illnesses and cancer.

And He can do the same for you, too, no matter where you are or where you’ve been…

A full thriving life is possible if I choose to come to God in faithful fear for refuge and strength like in Psalm 31:19 CEV You are wonderful, and while everyone watches, you store up blessings for all who honor and trust you.

That verse and many others throughout Scripture testify of the power and availability of God’s goodness to those who fear Him. From Exodus 33:19 to Psalm 23:6 to Zechariah 9:17 to 2 Corinthians 9:9 and onwards, God’s abundant goodness is there for whatever is there in life.

God’s goodness goes before and follows behind.

God’s goodness provides what is not and defeats what is.

God’s goodness envelops, encourages, and strengthens in the now and the not-yet.

And that’s just the bit that I can see and recognize today as His goodness – what about all the much-ness of that which I don’t see or know? Even the much-ness in my own body, much less the world around me, is beyond knowledge or understanding.. Abundant goodness in my autonomic nervous system breathing oxygen in and carbon dioxide out. Abundant goodness in my brain sending impulses to my hand to turn on the light or open the window for light. Abundant goodness in my body activating vitamin D production and absorption in the presence of sunlight. Abundant goodness in my heart rate slowing and stress hormone production decreasing in response to seeing thriving green plants in the woods around me.

And the much abundant goodness of Psalm chapters 8, 19, 119, and 139 as just a few places that are ripe and full with the much-ness, the superabundance, the abundant goodness of our Good God in His creation.

Abundant goodness.

Thank You, Lord, for Your abundant goodness stored up for each and every one of us!

Friends – if you’re looking for more of God’s abundant goodness in today, I’d encourage you to choose and read and re-read over again at least one of the chapters in the Psalms listed above. As I used to hear when I was growing up, “a Psalm a day keeps the devil away.”

written by and copyrighted to Beth Madison, Ph.D., 2026.