Has God Promised Good to Us?

Has God really promised good to us? The fourth verse of John Newton’s “Amazing Grace” has us singing it so…what does the Bible say?

There are two great verses that tell us our Good God wants good for us. I know there are many more, but these two come with the conditions

Promises for good

O fear the LORD, you His saints;
For to those who fear Him there is no want.
The young lions do lack and suffer hunger;
But they who seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing.
Psalm 34:9-10 (New American Standard Bible)

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 (New American Standard Bible)

Now from these verses we see that there are conditions for the good things of God.

I’m not telling you to be religious. If you think I am, keep reading this blog.  I’m not saying we need to simply follow rules. The rule we follow is to keep in step with the Spirit.  I’m not agreeing with a mindset that says, “You’re not good enough to receive the good things of God.” He really does love us.

The conditions are for those who

• Fear the Lord
• Seek the Lord
• Walk uprightly (do what’s right)

Examining the Conditions for getting the good God has for us

We can’t assume we know what we need to do to fear the Lord, seek the Lord, and even walk uprightly.

Do a search online for “fear the Lord” and you’ll get some theologians tell you there is no such thing as forgiveness and others say that since perfect love casts out all fear, there is no reason we need to fear God today even though the fear of the Lord is many times mentioned in the New Testament.

Search the Bible for “seek the Lord” and be surprised when it’s hard to find what you expect to find. I expected things like “pray longer, pray louder” and especially “fast.” Some of those the Bible includes…but God is much more concerned with attitude than action.

Can we really do what’s right in a world that says, “What’s right for you, isn’t right for me?” The only way we can is to see what the Bible says is right, agree with God He knows what’s best for our own good, and do what He says when He tells us to do it. Yes, we need to keep in step with the Spirit.

What I’m getting to is that I can’t make assumptions that we’re all on the same page. So I want to take time to examine what it means to Fear God, Seek God, and do what’s Right.

Over the next few posts we’ll look at both the benefits and ways the Bible says we can do all three things. Hope to have your questions and comments.