Shannon Costello

“And so of the good things of this life: if God did not by a very visible liberality confer these on some of those persons who ask for them, we should say that these good things were not at His disposal; and if He gave them to all who sought them, we should suppose that such were the only rewards of His service; and such a service would make us not godly, but greedy rather, and covetous.” (10)

I tried to summarize this by saying that God is not obligated to give good things to those who ask Him. Such a statement does not do enough to show the utter disparity between God and ourselves.

Our purpose in life is to “enjoy God and glorify Him forever.” God does not exist for us, but we for Him.

I listened to a portion of a radio interview with a well-known Christian woman with tetraplegia and infertility. My initial reaction was to wonder why God allowed the accident that paralyzed her and then didn’t give her children on top of that. It is very easy to assume that God is somehow obligated to spread the trials and blessings equally among us.

I am not going through any type of pain right now, but I know that attempting to grapple with pain can seem overwhelming. It helps to keep one’s emotional balance to remember something of who God is, what we are in relation to Him, and what we ought to do about it.

As Job said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised.”