Nothing Good Withheld
Excerpt from Psalm 84
“For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will [God] withhold from them that walk uprightly.” (KJV)
Reflection by Kenneth L. Samuel
I had just purchased a brand new Dell Computer from the Best Buy Store. I was frustrated because I couldn’t get the thing to work right. I had wireless internet from Verizon and I had a brand new computer, but I still couldn’t access the Internet or check my e-mail. In an agitated flurry, I put the computer back in the box and took it back to the store. Surely some device or some cable had been omitted from my computer package.
The “Geek Squad” tested it and politely informed me that all I needed was in the package, but that with the new configurations of a new computer I needed new procedures to access the Internet. The store had not withheld anything I needed; I just needed to learn how to use it.
When I think of the goodness that seems to be lacking in my life, I am often tempted to believe that for some reason God is holding back and holding out on me. But in light of my computer experience, the problem may not be God’s lack of provision, but my failure to fully access all that God has provided. For me, this is the promise of Psalm 84:11—God is not a withholder of anything that is good. And this is the blessed assurance of goodness in my life—the goodness which has been revealed, and the goodness which is yet to be accessed.
Prayer
Lord, give me the faith to trust in your goodness that I cannot see, and to depend on your provisions that I have not yet realized. Amen.
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