Endurance for the Journey, Featured
No Good Thing but In Him
I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing.”
PSALM 16:2 (NLT)
There comes a point in our experience when we say to the Lord. “Apart from you I have no good thing” (v. 2). Happiest are those who can make the statement when life is cruising along and the skies are bright and sunny; but happy are those, too, who make this discovery when the dark clouds roll in and darkness covers their personal landscape.
It’s a sad truth that many of us never discover the priceless value of the Lord until we are stripped of everything else. But it is an expression of His limitless grace and mercy that when we arrive in the land of utter desolation, our eyes can at last be opened to our true Treasure: God Himself. Oh, that we would train our lips to proclaim to the Lord, “Apart from you I have no good thing,” that we would train our minds to believe it, and that we would train our hearts to feel it! Then when suffering comes, we could endure its hardships with hope, knowing that we can never lose that which is most precious of all.
We can rejoice, too,
when we run into problems and trials,
for we know that they help us develop endurance.
And endurance develops strength of character,
And character strengthens our
confident hope of salvation.
And this hope will not lead to disappointment.
For we know how dearly God loves us,
because he has given us the Holy Spirit
to fill our hearts with his love.
ROMANS 5:3-5 (NLT)
On the journey with you,
Dave Dravecky
