What we want to hold, God in mercy withholds

"No good thing does he withhold from those who walk is blameless" (Psalm 84:11b).

How difficult it is to believe this when we lose someone or something so very precious to us. And yet this verse becomes so comforting. If we in faith believe that God will not hold back that which is good for us, then we can go on in the face of intense grief. "The Lord will indeed give what is good" (Psalm 85:12), especially in our sorrow, for He cannot break promises.

Matthew presents an intriguing idea: "Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsover is right, I will give you" (Matthew 20:4 KJV). Whatsoever happens is right for us, much as we cannot understand it at the time. Sometimes what we want to hold, God in mercy withholds. We cry out at the loss, but God knows what is best. It is our challenge to take Him at His blessed word. An apparent good has been taken that the real good may blossom into a lovely balm in our Gilead and in others' Gileads, also.

No good does He withhold. Only God can analyze what is good for us. The world calls good evil and evil good, light darkness and darkness light (Isaiah 5:20). But time proves all values, and it is in time that we eventually understand the whats and whys of the goods and evils of our lives, and we can finally praise and thank Him for it all.