No Good Thing Will He Withhold

      By Fern Horst

"For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." (Psalm 84:11)

This verse has long been a comfort to me, especially at times when God withheld what I thought was best for my life. Reading and mediating on this verse helped me to realize that if what I had thought was best really was best, God would have indeed have allowed me to have it or keep it. The fact that He withheld just what I'd wanted helped me to accept that it was not His best for me.

It is a comfort to know that, not only will God give us His best, but He will withhold and protect us from that which is not His best. Sometimes this is before we are very attached to this not-so-good thing, but other times we have to do a lot of grieving as God pries it out of our hands. It's only much later that we realize how much He has saved us from.

There is a clause in this verse that indicates that God only does this for certain people: those who walk uprightly. There's another verse that says, "The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him" (II Chronicles 16:9). This doesn't mean that we have to be perfect, but it does mean that God is anxious to work on behalf of those whose heart is turned fully towards Him, and who desire to be fully obedient no matter the cost.

© 2001 Fern Horst

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