No Good Thing: God hears you. God knows you.

Do you ever feel far away from God?  Like God doesn’t care about your struggles? Like He is holding out on you?

Me too.

I wrote in the last post about how my basement recently flooded. We have now begun the process of packing up all of our belongings to move. Right now, the idea of home is just a memory that was quickly taken away after Christmas. Feelings of frustration, displacement and nostalgia have been so strong.

But then I read Psalm 84.

“For the Lord God is a sun and shield;

the Lord bestows favor and honor.

No good thing does he withhold

from those who walk uprightly.”

Psalm 84:11

No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

When I read this, my first thought is, “Really, God? You took away my home…that seemed like a pretty good thing.”

But as I lay down my selfish desires and seek the Lord’s heart, I realize that it is true. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

Another way to look at it is, God will give the best thing possible to those who walk uprightly. There may be good things that you want that God isn’t giving you. This isn’t because He doesn’t care; it’s because that thing is not His best for you right now.

Israel went through a time of extreme hardship during their slavery to Egypt. They were constantly overworked and mistreated. But God was near to them.

“During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.” Exodus 2:23-25

God heard. God knew.

Isn’t that beautiful?

In the midst of our hardest trial, we often think that God doesn’t hear us. That He isn’t listening or even aware of what we’re going through.

But the same God that heard Israel’s cry of deliverance is hearing your cry too.

God hears you. God knows you. He withholds no good thing.

How do you feel like God is holding out on you? What is that good thing He isn’t giving you? Is it the job that you deserve? The health that you’ve been fighting for? That boy that you’ve been waiting to ask you to coffee? The comfort of a home to go to at night?

Whatever you’re crying out to God for, He hears you. And if He isn’t giving you that thing, then it is not His best for you.

That doesn’t make your circumstance any easier. But it does give a sense of peace in the storm.

Maybe God isn’t giving you what you’re praying for so that you’ll depend on Christ more than whatever you’re asking for. Growing closer to Christ is always best for you in any situation. So let your cry be for greater intimacy with Christ, within the storm you’re going through.

No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all,

how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

Romans 8:32