Many times when we don’t get what we want, questions and accusations start to flit about our minds.
“Why won’t God let me move up in my job? I’ve prayed and prayed and prayed for this. Doesn’t he want me to be happy? He could give me what I want in a second. Maybe he doesn’t love me. Maybe he’s not so good after all.”
The truth is, God will never withhold from us. The greatest, irrefutable proof of God’s generosity is Calvary. Look at the beloved Son, ridiculed by the masses, beaten beyond recognition, hanging upon a cross, slowly suffocating, dying for sinners like you and me. God gave up what was most precious to him so that he could save sinners who hated him. If God was willing to do that, won’t he also give us every good thing that we need? In Romans 8:32 Paul puts it this way: “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?”
Puritan pastor John Flavel says:
Surely if he [God] would not spare his own Son one stroke, one tear, one groan, one sigh, one circumstance of misery, it can never be imagined that ever he should, after this, deny or withhold from his people, for whose sakes all this was suffered, any mercies, any comforts, any privilege, spiritual or temporal, which is good for them.
If we don’t have something we desire, it’s not because God is withholding good from us. God didn’t spare his Son one stroke of misery. He won’t withhold any good thing from us.
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Excerpted from The Greener Grass Conspiracy: Finding Contentment on Your Side Of the Fence
