A good purpose

It can be tempting to think that there's an area of my life where things are lacking.  And as I began to pour my heart out to the Lord this morning, I reminded myself that the Lord knows the things I need.  And then I began to ask "if You know what I need, why haven't you given this to me?"

We can do this with so many different areas of our lives.  My car breaks down and I find myself wondering "why haven't You provided the money for the repairs?"  A friend struggles with constant migraines and we wonder "why haven't You provided healing?"  A missionary's husband dies of malaria and I wonder "why didn't You provide the medicine he needed in time?"  The years tick by and singleness continues and I wonder "why haven't You provided a husband?"  A friend's daughter dies of cancer and we wonder "why didn't You provide more time with her?"

And as I pour myself out to the Lord this morning, I hear the Spirit speaking Truth to me:
    The Lord gives grace and glory;
    No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.
    O Lord of hosts, 
    How blessed is the man who trusts in You (Psalm 84:11-12)


God does not withhold any good thing from me.  So is fixing my car not a good thing?  Is healing from the migraines not a good thing for my friend?  Is a husband not a good thing?  Is the death of the missionary or the daughter a good thing?

And I realize that this line of thinking is not right.  It makes God the suspect; the fiend instead of the friend. 

If "no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly," then there are two answers to be seen.  Either I am not walking uprightly or God has a good purpose in each of the situations we may ask about.

The idea I see in "those who walk uprightly" is that if the situations or circumstances are directly linked to a sin, then God may withhold a good thing.  Throughout Scripture we find support which basically boils down to this: We have to live with the consequences of our decisions, good or bad.  (This idea is best illustrated in Galatians 6:7-8).  But of the situations I listed, there was no sin which caused these afflictions.  So that means that the latter must be true:

God has a good purpose in the situation where we may ask "why?"

In our own understanding, there is no understanding.  But God sees a good purpose.  What I need to do is simply rest in this promise.

    Fear the Lord, you His saints;
    For to those who fear Him there is no want.
    The young lions do lack and suffer hunger;
    But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing (Psalm 34:9-10)

God likes BBQ

"... the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people.  Then fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the portions of fat on the altar..." (Leviticus 9:23b-24a)

God tried BBQ for the first time... I'm not completely sure he liked it.  I mean, how often do we try things and decide we never want to eat it again?  Though typically, if we don't like it, we don't consume the food in front of us!  But then comes into play the law of repetition...

He does it again in 2 Kings 1, 1 Chronicles 7, and 1 Chronicles 21.  And if we keep Coldstone in the back of our mind, I'd say He doesn't just like BBQ... He's Gotta Have It*!  And in keeping with the law of repetition... the first time, he tried it... the second time shows that He liked it... the third time shows that He loves it... and the fourth time shows He really loves it and has Gotta Have It*!

* The largest size at Coldstone is the "Gotta Have It" size!