NO GOOD THING DOES HE WITHHOLD - Louis Gervais
NO GOOD THING DOES HE WITHHOLD
Hello and greetings in the Name of the Son of Him Who Withholds No Good Thing, Jesus Christ! “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” –Psalm 84:11 According to the NAS footnotes, the second part of this verse could also be translated literally as, “No good thing does He withhold in regard to those who walk with integrity.” And in the NIV of 1984: “For the LORD is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless.” When I read that this week, I paused to ponder the implications. The thought that was most encouraging to me was that if I ask the Lord for personal holiness—which is most assuredly a “good thing,”—and if I meet the qualification of having a blameless walk, then God will most assuredly not withhold it from me. Hallelujah!
I know there are things that can hinder our prayers, and that God will never fulfill a prayer request which is not in accordance with His will, but we know from Scripture that it is His will that we be holy! This was a wonderful thought to me and it lent me much boldness in prayer. Now, as a father with his child, God the Father knows when to give us good things and when to withhold things for our own good. So while this verse isn’t a free ticket to every material blessing, it’s great to be reminded of the fact that in Christ we have everything we need; “having nothing yet possessing all things.” –2 Corinthians 2:10b . But one can really see and appreciate the heart of the Father seeking the best interest of His child. The persecuted family is most thankful for your prayer support. The recently announced legal action to evict them from the land where their mission station is being founded has up to now not been successful. The matter may have been stalled and they believe God may prevent it altogether. But they still experience threats and are not out of danger yet, requesting further prayer. It is also their prayer that the Lord may enable them to purchase that property which is so hotly disputed by the enemy.
Please pray also for my grandmother, Mr. Van Niekerk and Mr. Kussman—that they too may more directly experience God’s goodness. We had a very blessed youth camp—praise the Lord! He provided the young people (14 of them), the youth camp speaker, someone to handle the kitchen, the helpers, the campground (albeit long ago: Mispa camp), the finances—and He provided His blessing upon the preaching of His Word. Hallelujah! Afterwards, some of the youths testified that they had asked the Lord to save them for the first time and others shared with joy that they had attained assurance of their salvation—God is faithful! We can pray that they remain faithful to Him. Also, at the exact moment that I walked into Winburg’s grocery store on Wednesday morning there was a young Afrikaans man I didn’t recognize—who greeted me by name! He had been in one of the classes where we shared the Gospel at a high school in Winburg seven months ago! And so he became the 15th youth to join us and he heard the Gospel at the camp. We can pray for him; his name is Marco. It was quite the divine appointment! Ian and Marézelle’s wedding was yesterday, and Christ was glorified there.
It was nice to see them, other friends and many of the workers of our Mission again! Marézelle was my fellow student for 18 months at the Bible School and Werner and I worked with Ian in ministry in 2014. Please pray for me and Daniël as we now have to make arrangements for our planned 6-week invasion of the southeast Transvaal with the Gospel. May you experience God, and delight in His goodness! –Louis Gervais “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” –2 Peter 1:2-3