Adjusting Our Idea of Good

Introduction

I have a close friend who just lost her endeared sister unexpectedly last week. Grief and sorrow are being experienced by her as I write. Another friend received a call recently from his cherished younger brother sharing the news of advanced and terminal bone cancer found in his spine. All of those I have mentioned in these severe events are or were Christ followers. What gives?

Psalms 84:11 tells us: “The Lord will withhold no good thing for those who do what is right?”

How do we reconcile this verse with much of life? I am sure my friends are not feeling “good” about the harshness of these happenings. Where’s the “good” Father God in all this? Are they not “right” enough? Life is heavily or lightly peppered with situations that yell loudly that this verse is not true for those who have called Jesus their Lord and Savior. How do we explain this?

Volumes could be written and have already been on this question how a “good” and loving God allows “bad” things to happen to His children. In this letter to my father, who was dying of cancer himself, I discuss this apparent discrepancy of Father’s love and the reality of much of life.

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This letter was written to my father on February 2, 2019

Adjusting Our Idea of Good

No good thing will He withhold from those whose walk is blameless. Psalm 84:11

Hey Dad,

“For the Lord is our sun and shield. He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing for those who do what is right.” Psalm 84:11 NLT

For the believer in Christ who is walking through a dark valley of a trial right now, this verse might be hard to reconcile with. Its on-the-surface meaning seems to contradict the very experience they might be presently in.

Apply this verse to the book of Acts and you might see some troubling discrepancies. When Paul was being led to the executioner’s block, those who loved him would have had a hard time seeing the “good.” They just might have been saying, “If this is God’s idea of ‘good,’ then I don’t want any part of Him.” All of us can point to personal life experiences that don’t seem to wash with this verse. So, what gives?

Am I not “right” enough? Am I not “blameless” enough so that I am disqualified from the truth of this verse? First of all let's settle one big question, we will never be “right” enough or “blameless” enough through our own personal being. There was only one person who ever lived that was entirely blameless. His name is Jesus. But I am blameless! Entirely! I am blameless because I am in Jesus. By faith, I have placed myself in Him. I am so much “in Him” that Father sees me as blameless or righteous. “......so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV

Hmm? So, what is the verse getting at? Because we are restricted to this bodily experience right now, we tend to forget Father’s Kingdom is not here on this physical earth. His kingdom is in the unseen, in our hearts. We might be able to experience Father with our senses sometimes but His eternal domain is in the unseen.

There is nothing our enemy, the Grand Liar, can do to stop Father from giving us all His “good things” while we are here living behind enemy lines. Father can and wants to fill us to over flowing with these “good” things. What might these “good things” be?

Hope

Joy

Peace

Confidence

Strength

Love

Kindness

Patience

Self-Control

Paul had all these “good” things while he walked those last few paces to meet his executioner. How about us?

When we walk about today, will we have these “good” things in our possession? He wants to give them to us. Is there any better way to live?

Love you Dad!

Your Comments are welcome below!

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