God's Desire for My Well-being

When we come to a passage like Psalm 121 it is easy to read that God will protect me and think that it means that God will do whatever he can to make sure that my good is his highest goal.  When we combine this with Romans 8:28 we become convinced that God is all about making sure that I am happy and all my needs are met.  This is the foundation of the prosperity gospel.  So what biblical truths make this position untenable? 

1. God is not about my good but His glory.  From the opening pages of Genesis where we are made in His image, to the conclusion where it is all about what God is accomplishing, the whole of Scripture makes it very clear that my life is not about me, but about serving the God who made me.  In other words, I am here for God and not God here for me! 

2. God does promise me good, but with the long view in mind.  In other words, the good that God promises me, the protection and even the freedom from harm is not a promise in each and every moment, but a promise for what God WILL provide.  This is consistent with how he handles His prophets, His people, and even His Son.  The promise of good does not mean good continually, but the eventual good!

3. The future promise of good things includes the ultimate good!  Here we see that the temporal does not compare to the eternal.  If I promised you that if you sacrificed 10 thousand dollars today for guaranteed millions in 10 years, would you cry about losing 10 thousand dollars?  When we have the eternal perspective of what we know is coming, the suffering we might face this side of Glory is so worth it!

4. The promise of good does not negate the truth that sometimes harm comes to those that follow God and sometimes blessing comes to those who do not - in the present, but not for eternity!

Our hope is that we are not bound to this moment only, but to a God who sees from beginning to end.  The question becomes are we willing to trust when the moment does not look like the end that He has promised?