No Good Thing Will God Withhold From You
My heart’s desire and prayer to God is that all believers who read this may, by these many answers to prayer, be encouraged to pray. George Müller
George Mueller's greatest desire was to glorify God. To allow God to do His work so that it would bear testimony to who God is, thereby strengthening not only the faith of the orphans and staff, but also his fellow believers. Allowing God to do the work meant spending hours every day reading the Word and in prayer. This is what marked his life - prevailing and abiding prayer. He meticulously recorded His prayers and their answers. He recorded 50 000 prayers that God had answered in his life, many of which were answered at the last minute.
Mueller expected God to answer His prayer for the many needs he, the orphanages and his ministerial work had. However, sometimes God’s answer to his prayers was: “No.” When Mueller’s second wife, Mary, fell ill, he prayed for her healing. God, however, did not heal her. This is what he wrote in his journal,
“Therefore, if it is really good for me, my darling wife will be raised up again, sick as she is. God will restore her again. But if she is not restored again, then it would not be a good thing for me [to have her]. And so my heart was at rest. I was satisfied with God. And all this springs, as I have often said before, from taking God at his word, believing what he says.”
Mueller was referring to Psalm 84:11 (ESV), which says,
“For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favour and honour. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.
Satisfied With the Sovereign Will of God
There will be times in our lives when our prayers are not answered as we would like. We may, at that moment, succumb to disappointment and disillusionment. We may even be mad at God and feel rejected by Him. But God, who is in control of the universe, is also in control of our lives. So we can trust Him because we are fully known by our creator God (1 Corinthians 13:12). We can trust Him because we are fully loved by Him with an eternal love that He lavishes upon us (1 John 3:1).
When we know that God knows and loves us deeply, we will be satisfied with His sovereign will for our lives. We will be sustained in the knowledge that His plans for us are good.
Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. James 1:17 (NLT)
Reflection
Will you take time to think about the times God has not answered your prayer in the way you would have liked? Ask Him to show you the good things that He has given you instead.
Prayer
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you that I am fully known and fully loved by you. Thank You for lavishing Your love upon me and calling me Your child. Forgive me for being disappointed when You did not answer my prayer in the way I had hoped. Help me to rest in Your sovereign plan for my life. Help me to see that the plans You have for my life are good and will give me a hopeful future. In Jesus’ name, amen.
