Wait
David sat in the cave of Adullam with the weight of rejection on his mind. His parents had overlooked him, Saul had hurled spears at him, and life was constantly unsettled. Yet in that cave, something stronger than pain rose in his heart. He realized that none of those wounds had been able to stop God from working everything together for good. He mused and added a line to his song: “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.” Ps 23
David wasn’t writing poetry. He was describing a reality. Follow in Hebrew means to pursue relentlessly, to chase down, to run after with determination. David understood that God’s goodness and mercy were active powers, moving toward him, even when life felt dark, unfair, or confusing. And what was true for David in that cave is true for us today. Right now—this very moment—the goodness and the mercy of God are following you.
We might wonder why God doesn’t simply go ahead of us and fix everything before we arrive. Why let us walk into difficulty at all? The answer: So, He can reveal Himself, and we can know Him more deeply. Adam wasn’t stopped from sinning, but after he fell, God’s goodness and mercy moved toward him to restore. Abraham wasn’t prevented from abandoning Sarah, but three days later God’s goodness caught up with them, delivering her and filling Abraham with gratitude. If God removed every challenge before we reached it, we would never witness His power, His rescue, or His astonishing love.
Even God’s promises often take time to manifest. Moses stood at the Red Sea with Pharaoh behind him and deep water before him. Trouble followed him—but so did goodness and mercy. He waited, and soon, the sea opened. The same divine power followed Daniel into the lions’ den, the Hebrew boys into the furnace, and Jesus into the grave.
Friend, if life feels hard, stand still. Stay in faith. Wait for God’s goodness and His mercy to catch up with you—it might be 3 days or 3 years, but they will. Trouble is never a sign of His absence, but it is always the signal for His mercy to follow.