No Good Thing Will He Withhold

No Good Thing Will He Withhold (Part One) Solomon writes in Proverbs 3:27-28: Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so. Do not say to your neighbor, "Go, and come back, and tomorrow I will give it," when you have it with you. When God instructs us how to think and act, He is revealing how He thinks and acts. Here, God is showing us that when He knows what is good for us—after all, He is all-knowing and has all power—He will not even wait a day to act. He is "chomping at the bit,"aggressively searching for opportunities to do us good (II Chronicles 16:9). Notice the last part of Psalm 84:11, "No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly." No good thing, not even one, will He withhold, not even waiting a day, according to Proverbs 3:28. So, when we are in a trial and wondering why God has not intervened, we can conclude that a change is not what is best for us now, no matter what we might think (Isaiah 55:8). God has each of us exactly where we need to be at this moment because, in His love and wisdom, He knows what is good for us. Former Church of the Great God pastor, John Ritenbaugh, in his Bible Study, "Matthew (Part Twenty-Seven)," explains God's thinking: We understand the principle that God will do for us only what we cannot do for ourselves. So, what is God doing with us? He is reproducing, recreating Himself, and developing us to the maturity, understanding, knowledge, and wisdom in whichwe will be able to rule and teach in the World Tomorrow. We will need to be problem solvers, and the best way to produce problem solvers is to make them solve problems. If God used the childrearing techniques that many people use, we would grow up unable to solve our problems because our Parent always solved them for us. God, however, is not a defective Parent by any means. If it is good for us to go through something, God will make us go through it. If we need the experience, education, or character that can be gained through doing it, He will not remove us from it or it from us. He will make us experience it. If He "saved" us every time we felt uncomfortable, we would grow up to be unable to do anything—uneducated, untrained, and unfit for His Kingdom. So, because He is love, He cannot answer most of our requests for deliverance since to do so wouldbe detrimental to our developing character. He must let us go through trials, so why even pray to that end? Why not instead ask Him for the power to overcome it? That He will grant! Our approach needs to be to pray for that power. Then, we should rise from our knees and go to work as though everything depended on us, as though God is not even in the picture, although we know He is. That is how we grow. That is how we shoulduse prayer, to give us the ability to accept our cup, our circumstances. (Edited transcript.) Do we believe God loves each of us just as much as He loves Jesus Christ? Our Savior says so in John 17:23. Do we believe Him? Do we trust in God's love for us in every circumstance? Regarding accepting our cup, John Ritenbaugh goes on to give the examples of the apostle Paul and Jesus Christ: Remember in II Corinthians 12:1-10 how Paul stated he sought God three times to remove the thorn in his flesh, which he called "a messenger of Satan"? Each time, God said, "No." Through prayer, Paul came to accept his condition, whatever it was, and to realize that God would never remove it. Even so, he understood thatGod would give him the power to endure or overcome it. So, he accepted God's answer. Many of us do not accept God's answers, and because we do not understand this principle, we become bitter and discouraged. We despair and feel deep self-pity. "Woe is me!" we cry, when God is doing His best to develop knowledge, understanding,wisdom, empathy, compassion, and all kinds of positive attitudes and character in us through our circumstances. We fight Him tooth and nail because we do not accept His decisions. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus came to God and said, "I would like to get out of this trouble. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours be done." How did He come to accept the Father's answer? By prayer. In prayer, He realized He would acceptGod's will, God's decision, regardless of what it led to—ridicule, weakness, pain, shame, and ignominious death. He determined He would accept it. John Ritenbaugh ends this section with a comment on prayer: "We should use prayer to ask God for the ability or the power to endure. If we come to regard prayer as merely a means to escape, we will end up bewildered and disappointed." Why isthis true? Paul, in the last part of I Corinthians 10:13, writes about escaping temptation: ". . . but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it." On its face, "escape" cannot be what the apostle meant. If we escape, what is there to bear? We arefree. New Testament writers use the underlying Greek word for "escape," ekbasis (Strong's #1545), only one other time, in Hebrews 13:7, where it is rendered "outcome." On his website, Greek language scholar William D. Mounce defines ekbasis as "way out; outcome, end, result." Two Bible versions give a more on-the-mark adaptation of Paul's thought: •But when you are tempted, he will also give you the ability to endure the temptation as your way of escape. (GOD'S WORD Translation) •[B]ut when he tests you, he will also bring about the outcome that you are able to bear it. (Evangelical Heritage Version) Our problems, large and small, are training exercises God uses to perfect us (Ephesians 4:13). Our focus should not be to escape but to learn the lessonsand overcome. The quicker we do so, the faster God can change the situation once we have passed the test. But for the others, the long-lasting trials, our way of escape is learning patience and endurance with God's help through prayer. So, like Paul, we are victorious rather than crushed by the trial (ICorinthians 15:57). Because of God's help, we can bear it and be better prepared for leadership in God's Kingdom. The Contemporary English Version renders the last part of Exodus 34:6 as, "I show great love, and I can be trusted" (emphasis added). Jesus and Paul trusted God. Because of this trust, Paul could write in I Thessalonians 5:18, ". . . in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." He could thank God for everything, even sore trials, because he trusted in God's love and that His will was for Paul's greatest good—to perfect him (Psalm 138.8; Mathew 5:48). In His Word, God says, "I can be trusted," and adds, "No good thing will [I] withhold." Do we believe Him? In Part Two, we will see more about trials. - Pat Higgins