Week
7 Hope and Anticipate
Day 46
He Withholds No Good
Thing
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. Lord Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you.
Psalm 84:11-12 NIV
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e tend to skip over Scripture passages that ask us to be
blameless. We know we are unable to obey God perfectly, and the danger in this
knowledge is that we may use it to excuse a “what’s the use” attitude. We balk
when faced with a challenge to strive toward the ideal our Lord commanded in
Matthew 5:48: “You therefore must be
perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
The miracle is that God has done
what we could not; He has accomplished perfection for us through Christ. Because
of Jesus, our sole challenge is to put self-will out of the way and relax into
the love that has saved us. Matthew Henry says, “God makes those holy whom he
saves.”[i]
The work is the Lord’s and not ours, and so we have only to place ourselves in
the path of the blessing, not conjure it for ourselves.
We are works in progress, and the
completion of the work will not occur until we are glorified in Him. However, the
fact that complete perfection can’t be attained until the physical body has
died does not release us from responsibility today; we are accountable before
the Lord to begin the perfection process now. Perfection is not a goal to be
attained; it is a path to travel. We must strive to keep as closely as we can
to the perfection path, trusting that on this road forged by Christ’s blood we will
be led to the perfection He requires. We will certainly never arrive at our
destination unless we walk the path He has provided, and that is why it is
important—vital—that we try. This trying
doesn’t look like any other goal seeking effort we carry out in the flesh; it
is a falling back rather than a striving forward, a release more than anything
to grasp. Appropriating God’s best blessings comes through giving way to His
will rather than working hard to achieve goals of our own making.
The roadblock to obedience comes in the area of human willfulness. How
often we respond to the Lord with behaviors resembling those of cranky children
who will not obey parental requests, even those that are for their own
good. The truth is that none of us (adult or child) like being told what
to do. But if we believe in the Lord's goodness and wisdom, it should be
apparent that it is in our own best interests to obey Him. The Scripture
passage that introduces this reading says that the Lord withholds no good thing
from those whose walk is blameless. This would seem to disqualify all of
us from the Lord's good things! But the very next verse clarifies what
constitutes righteousness in God's eyes: "...blessed is the one who
trusts in You."
If we trust Him, we will obey Him.
Obedience requires a willingness to be
God-directed rather than self-directed. As we succumb to His influence in our
moment-by-moment decisions, we attain His perfection path.
Pray: Dear Lord, show me how
to obey when I am in pain. Show me how to obey when I am in grief. Show
me how to obey when I feel tired and weak, and show me how to be free of the
willfulness that rebels against pushing through obstacles in order to be
obedient. Please forgive me for the ways my disobedience has caused harm to
Your heart and Your children; please heal the wounds I've caused and allow me
the privilege of being a part of the healing process. I trust You, help me to trust You
more. Grant me the joy of obedience, in Jesus' Name I pray.
~~~
Therefore, with minds that are alert and
fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ
is revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil
desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who
called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is
written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
1 Peter 1:13-16 NIV
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