Recently, I heard a well-meaning Christian (I will call him Frank) respond with the following to someone (I will call him Sam) whose Christian journey had been one of adversity after adversity and disappointment after disappointment: If you will simply do things God’s way, He will bless you. As I continued listening to Frank’s response, his message became obvious, and it was this: Sam, if you will simply begin to do things God’s way, you will find that the adversities and disappointments you have been experiencing will be replaced with God’s rich blessings; He will prosper you.
I will never forget Sam’s response: I have been purposing to do things God’s way for quite a while now, trusting Him to be my provider; however, these blessings you talk about haven’t been coming my way, and the prosperity you mention has certainly eluded me. I know Sam and I happen to know that what he said is true.
If our doing things God’s way, aka obedience, produces blessings and prosperity, as Frank implied, what do we say to the “Sams” of the world who truly purpose to do things God’s way, yet they have adversity after adversity come into their lives, most of which were beyond their control? Do we tell them that they have, simply, not been obedient, that they have not been following God’s way? I will speak for myself and say this: I do not want to sit in that place of judgment.
Having made that disclaimer, surely it is obvious that every one of us has experienced adversity because of foolish choices; choices that we knew were in absolute disobedience to “God’s way” of doing things. It is also true that most of us have experienced adversity that was in no way related to our disobedience. The fact is adversity is no respecter of obedience. If you do not believe that, hang around a while longer and you will become a believer, and that is a promise.
Yes! It is always best to do things “God’s way,” but our doing so does not guarantee a life free from adversity, a life of blessing and prosperity. Oftentimes, the opposite is true. Jesus is a rather good example, in my humble opinion.
You see, if I should say to someone, “If you will simply do things God’s way, He will bless and prosper you,” I would be implying (very strongly!) that that is what I am doing and that is why God is blessing and prospering me. I would be defining God as one who does things contingently, as a “cause and effect” God, which would be far from the truth. I would also be presenting myself as someone who has “arrived” in his Christian life, which would be even further from the truth.
I wonder what Sam’s response would have been, if this had been the answer he received from Frank: Sam, I am well-aware that every blessing I have received from God was a gift of grace to me, as I have failed over and over in my attempts at obedience. I have come to believe that God blesses us, not because of our obedience, but because of Jesus’ obedience, and I also believe that most of the time His blessings come wrapped in packages that we simply do not recognize as being blessings. Sam, I am blessed because God chose to give me the gift of life—the life of His Son—the rest is mere fluff, as far as I am concerned.
The following is a fitting quote from John Fischer’s book, “On a Hill Too Far Away,” p. 164: One of the gravest errors Christians can make in an attempt to witness to unbelievers is to try to pass themselves off as some kind of finished product. I can remember as a child always being taught to maintain a good image among non-Christians. I was supposed to be the “after” of the before and after ads for the Sin Watchers Club of America. We were to show non-Christians our good side for the sake of our testimony to them. Seeing us as such sterling examples of faith was supposed to make them all want to be Christians, too. Nothing could be further from the truth. This kind of “witness” destroys the gospel and drives people away . . . our truest witness comes through the cross.
You think about that—
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