Whatever is Good

I'm not sure where I came across this quote, but I have it written in my Bible at the beginning of the book of Psalms:

"Anything that makes me need God is a blessing".

It used to be that when anything hard came my way I would cry out to God "Why is this happening?  It was always why, why, why.  Thankfully the LORD has brought me a long way from why to what.  Now when the trials come I'm more prone to ask in quiet reverence before Him "Okay, what do You want me to learn and apply to my life through this?  What part of Your character do I need to see and understand more clearly?"

One of the most quoted Scriptures I guess would probably be Romans 8:28,

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."

But there are some things that come our way or that we see going on around us that make us ask, "But how can this be for my good"?  A very clever tool of the enemy of our souls is to get us to question God and His intentions toward us.  But over and over in His word God tells exactly what He intends for His children.  Here are just three out of many:

"For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless."  Psalm 84:11

"The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing."  Psalm 34:10

"Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance?  You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy."   Micah 7:8

This great truth of God's mercy and grace toward us had been whirling around in my mind and heart when I came to this devotional thought from David Clarkson, a Puritan pastor, a few days ago taken from Voices From The Past :

"The love of Christ daily loads us with benefits.  He gives us nothing but what is good.  He blesses our curses, temptations, afflictions, sin and death, and they all prove good to us.  Even all His ways prove good to us; and not only all the ways of God, who loves us in Christ, but all the ways of those who hate us, whether reprobates or devils.  This is the great privilege of those whom Christ loves; nothing shall befall them, but what shall prove good for them.  They may conclude, in whatever condition they are in, it is the best for them, and if it had not been so, they would never have been brought into it; and whenever it shall cease to be so, they shall be removed out of it...Christ's love gives us whatever is good."

Please know that if you are a believer and are trusting in Christ alone for you salvation, He will only bring those things or people into your life that will be for your good and His glory!

Praising Him,
Jennifer