Does God Keep Things from Us?

The short answer is yes – God has rules and boundaries set up for us to keep us safe and living in a way that honors Him. He keeps us away from some behaviors or activities. We can choose to ignore those boundaries and do what we want, but there will always be consequences.

When I think of where we see this in Scripture, the most obvious example is Genesis 2:

“And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die’” (Genesis 2:16-17).

In a sense, God was “keeping” this fruit from Adam and Eve. But He wasn’t doing it to hoard the juicy sweetness for Himself, or just to toy with His beloved creation. He was doing it to keep them safe. But in their ignorance, Adam and Eve were tricked by the Serpent.

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ‘You will not certainly die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it” (Genesis 3:1-6).

God is clear with His boundaries. He tells us in Scripture what is allowed (Micah 6:8, Colossians 3:12-17), and what is forbidden (1 Corinthians 6:8-10, Romans 1:28-31). He “keeps” things from us that would do harm to us or others, and He does this because He cares for us. Even if the thing looks pleasing (like Eve found in the Garden) or harmless (like my dog finding free peanut butter on a mouse trap), if God has forbidden it, then it is unsafe.

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Obviously, the forbidden fruit in the Garden was not good for Adam and Eve. But what about other things in life that the Bible celebrates? Marriage. Children. A successful ministry. These are all such good things – and so out of reach for some devout Christians.

There’s no easy answer to this. Our society would tell us to work harder at it, and if you put in enough effort then you can do anything. But Scripture tells us over and over again to just trust God. We often see that ignoring God’s timing and plowing forward with our own plans brings more pain than joy.

Remember Abraham, who was promised by God that his descendants would outnumber the stars in the sky. As the decades passed, Abraham still found himself without a natural heir. But God had promised him this good thing! Why was it taking so long?? Finally, Abraham ran out of patience and decided to make this promise happen his way.

“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; so she said to Abram, ‘The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.’ Abram agreed to what Sarai said” (Genesis 16:1-2).

Abraham and Sarah’s plan worked – Hagar became pregnant and bore Abraham a son named Ishmael. But he was not the promised child, and his conception was grounded in sin. As a result, this twisted relationship between Abraham, his wife, and Hagar brought nothing but pain for all involved.

And wouldn’t you know it? A couple of chapters later, God does fulfill His promise to Abraham. He blesses him with Isaac, even in Abraham’s old age. God has not forgotten Abraham; all he had to do was trust and wait.

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Does this mean that God will give you everything you want if you just wait on Him? Maybe not. But what He gives you will be good. Going back to the story about my dog and the mouse traps, my dog may be upset with me that I won’t let him eat the peanut butter. But I know that I have an entire box of high-quality dog biscuits in the pantry. I don’t want my dog to eat the mouse bait because I know it isn’t good for him. But when I see that he’s struggling with this, I am happy to offer him a much better treat.

He may still look at the mouse trap with longing, but hopefully he can see that the treat I gave him was way better. And the thing is – there’s more where that came from. I’m happy to shower my dog with treats because I love him!

How much more does our perfect Father in heaven love us?

“How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings” (Psalm 36:7).

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1).

It’s ok to feel disappointment when things don’t go the way we planned, or when something good we desire doesn’t happen. But don’t let that disappointment push you to believe the lie that God doesn’t care about you. He doesn’t keep good things from us because we have sinned, because He is angry with us, because we forgot to pray last week, or because we cut someone off in traffic this morning. He keeps things from us because they are not good for us, or the time for them is not right.

There is a season for everything, Ecclesiastes 3:1 reminds us. Maybe this is a season of patience, or a season of paying attention to other good things God is doing in your life. But a season of joy is coming.

Friends, don’t eat the bait off the mousetrap. Wait patiently for the Father’s good timing!

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