When we consider Who God is, and how wonderful He has always been to us, our hearts well up with love and gratitude towards Him. A thankful heart that loves the Lord is exactly what keeps us in the position to expect and receive His goodness. Not because His good nature is conditional, rather, because we receive His goodness when our hearts are full of faith and have an expectation to receive from Him. The Israelites of old experienced 40 years of God's non stop goodness. His constant, supernatural provision and protection was common place to them. Never once did He fail them or fail to live up to the reputation of His name. They personally saw and experienced enough of God's power to fully understand and absorb it into their consciousness. But the Bible says the moment trouble presented itself, they murmured and complained, causing their hearts to be hardened against Him. If they had just stopped and reminded themselves of all the glorious things He had done for them, and thought about how good He was to them, their hearts would have overflowed with gratitude and love towards Him. How different things would have gone for them then. God would have marched them right into their promised land in far less time than it took. Their stubborn refusal to think on the goodness of God and rejoice in His faithfulness to them cost them a lifetime of wondering in the wilderness and forfeited their entering the promised land. How strange that after so many years of God demonstrating who He was and how faithful He was to His people, they still complained and doubted Him. We must learn from their mistakes. Do we recount the blessings of God and express our eternal gratefulness to Him each day? As we continually remind ourselves of God's goodness and do whatever is necessary to maintain a thankful heart, we will avoid falling into the trap of becoming hardhearted like the children of Israel. Let's be counted among those who are grateful and thankful, who love God and trust Him to be exactly who He has declared Himself to be. Then we will experience how He is constantly working all things for our good. God is good to you - and don't ever let yourself forget it!