No Good Thing Will He Withhold

Psalm 84:11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

Sometimes I can so easily look around at my friends, acquaintances, and even strangers and feel envious about what they have.  Comparisons come quickly, easily, and a lot of the time without even my realization.  I look around and see my friends with their beautiful houses, their ability to go on vacations, and nice cars.  Why can’t we have all those good things?

So often contentment eludes me.  I ask God why I can’t have some of these “good” things.   I look around at my life and wonder if this is all that I am meant to be.  Am I really doing God’s will by just staying home and teaching my kids?  Is it good enough?  In reality, how much difference does my little contribution make?  Is it worth it to sacrifice some temporary earthly happiness to homeschool?  Why am I really doing this? 

Lately God has been reminding me that my idea of good things and His idea of good things are completely different.  I think it would be good to have a new house.  Having a sizable savings account would be good.  Taking a nice, long, vacation would be good.  My blog making money would be good. As of right now, I do not have any of those things.  But If I believe the verse above, I have to believe that He does not withhold any good thing.

Do I qualify?

But first, let’s talk about whether I qualify for this promise.  “To those who walk uprightly.”  I need to figure out what this phrase actually means.  Does it mean that I walk perfectly?  Absolutely not!  I sin multiple times every day, and I know it.  God knows it too, and nowhere does He demand perfection in my fallen state.  So what does it mean to “walk uprightly?”  Elsewhere in the Bible, righteousness is credited to those who have faith in God.  So all I have to do to qualify for this promise is to believe what God says.  This leaves me in His hands.  I walk uprightly if I trust in His promises and rest in Him. 

The beginning of this verse describes God as a sun and a shield.  The sun shines its rays on everything.  We receive the benefit of its warmth and light.  So God as a sun does the same thing.  He dispenses good things in abundance.  A shield prevents damage from arrows and sword thrusts.  It keeps them back.  So as a shield, then God must do the same thing.  But, does that mean that He gives us all the good things and keeps away the bad?

Does He give us all good things and keep away the bad?

Even from my point of view, it cannot mean that.  I believe that good things are something that make me feel good, or help me get ahead in this life.   I have received both good things from His hands, and He has allowed bad things in my life.   In order for me to figure this out, my perspective needs to change.  I cannot always see what is truly good or bad.

The thing that I want to obtain the most on this earth is a new house.  Our house has a lot of history to it, being older than the state that I live in.  The basement is a rock cellar basement that floods when the water table is high.  It also contains lots of lovely little creatures that find their way in.  Our windows act like sieves, letting in an abundance of cold air in the winter.   We have power strips in almost every outlet in our house to accommodate all of our electronics and devices.  Our house would not pass any efficiency test out there.  I have prayed that God would allow us to build a new house, but as of yet He has not.

To complain or be thankful?

I have two choices 1: to grouse because He has not answered my prayer or 2: to be thankful for the good things that He has given to us.  Our house is old, but it does keep us warm during the winter.  Our name is on the deed, but someone else takes care of the property taxes and any majorly large expense.  We don’t have to worry about messing up the house, because we don’t really have a lot of value in it.  We live on a beautiful acreage with our nearest neighbor living a quarter mile away.  If we were to build a new house, all of that would change and we would carry all of those new expenses.  So right now, it is good that we don’t have a new house.

Right now we are living paycheck to paycheck.  I don’t work, so the financial burden of our family falls on my husband.  Over the years I have tried in so many ways to help my husband by making a little money.  Nothing I have tried has panned out.   But God has reminded me that if we had a little more financial security, then I would trust Him a little less.  The biggest prayer that He has ever answered in my life is to help me to trust Him.  Living paycheck to paycheck forces all of us to trust that He will supply all of our needs.  

God’s ultimate purpose for my life

I could go through all the circumstances in my life, describing them as either good or bad.  But even though I may not see it, God’s purpose in my life is still being worked out through all of them.

God’s ultimate purpose in all of our lives is to make us like Jesus.  It is not to make us happy, comfortable, or well known.  If I remember God’s purpose for my life, then everything that He allows to come into my life works toward that purpose, to make me more like Jesus.  So He uses what I see as bad and good to work in me, making me the masterpiece that He has created me to be.  

God’s Definition of Good

That is His definition of good.  Anything that brings me closer to being like Jesus is good.  Therefore, I can hold onto the promise of this verse.  He will withhold nothing from me that brings me closer to Himself.  If I don’t have something that I want, that means that right now, it is not good for me.  When He takes away something that I have, then that lack also works good in me.  Nothing comes into my life without going through His hands first and performing the task for which He sent it.  

Romans 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

What this all comes down to again is do I trust that God is going to do what He has promised? Will I rest and just let Him work in my life?  Even when bad things come, do I believe that He is still working for me?  Or, I do I fight against it, making myself and everyone around me miserable? But I have learned through a lot of hard lessons that when I fight, I just get the same lesson over and over again.  And the consequences for failing the lessons only increase.  I find it very difficult to trust in the Lord, but it is so much easier to just let go and let Him handle things than it is to fight His will.  He wants His will in my life because He loves me and He wants the best for me.

How about you, mama?  Have you been able to put your trust in the Lord throughout the good and the bad times?  He is working all things for your good.