#DailyDevotion If Your God Promises You An Easy Life, It Isn’t The Bible’s God
Psalm 66 10But, O God, You have tested us; You have purified us like silver. 11You caught us in a net, and put misery on our bodies. 12You let men drive over our heads; we went through fire and water; but then You brought us out to have plenty.
I think we are spoiled. There are a lot of Christians out there who think God’s love means they should not undergo any hardship, any loss or any tribulation. Those that think this way, when God brings these things down upon them end up leaving God and becoming atheist. They didn’t get what they wanted, when they wanted it, in the manner they wanted it. They were disappointed by a God that only exists in their imaginations. It isn’t the biblical God.
Here we God as He is and as He presents Himself. This is a God who tests us. Who sends us through the fires to purify us. He allows misery to come into our bodies. He allows us to be ruled by wicked and evil men. Did not Jesus promise us such things? Did He not teach us the Beatitudes where we are blessed with suffering, particularly with persecution for His name’s sake. He promised us if we lose our life for His sake we will gain it. He promised to bring a sword and not peace into our lives if we became His disciples. Peter in his epistles reminds us the sufferings we undergo are purifying our faith. Paul reminds us the misery and suffering God brings into our life are to develop in us perseverance, character and hope. It is preparing us to bear the weight of eternal glory. Hebrews reminds us that God disciplines us like sons so we may bear the fruit of eternal righteousness. So no, don’t expect an easy life if Christ Jesus is your God.
On the other hand, the LORD did bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey. Through David, He brought peace and safety to the Israelites. In similar fashion, we Christians who remain faithful will inherit the earth, a new creation in which the effects of sin are no longer felt. We will see and dwell with God the Father and Christ Jesus.
13I will enter Your temple with burnt offerings and do for You what I vowed, 14what my lips said and my mouth promised when I was in trouble. 15I will sacrifice to You fattened livestock as burnt offerings, with the fragrant smoke of sacrificed rams. I will offer cattle and goats.
What is our response to the great things God has done for us in Christ Jesus? Is it not offering Him up songs and prayers of thanksgiving and praise. We don’t do animal sacrifice anymore. We do open up our wallets and check-books and make sacrifices. It’s not that God needs it. If He needed our wealth, He would just take it. It is for our spiritual good that we sacrifice our wealth. It is a spiritual necessity to demonstrate our faith in God and His continued providence. Sure, the Church uses it to build and maintain places where we can hear God’s word, be taught God’s word and receive His gifts to us in the sacraments. It provides a living to the one God has called to deliver these spiritual blessings to us. But it is for our good, for our spiritual growth to make such sacrifices. If we did not, we would be teaching our sinful flesh that wealth is more important than God. It is more trustworthy than God. It would be teaching us that wealth brings and gives us all good things. We end up making wealth our God in place of God. This is why it is a good thing to sacrifice it, offering it up to God through the Church and those we meet along the way in need of material goods.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the great salvation You have given us. Give us Your Holy Spirit that we may recognize the trying things in life as coming from Your loving hand to purify our faith, to discipline us and to prepare us for the world to come. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.