Joy in Trials?

 
Last night I dreamt about eternity that included visits with people that I have known. Each of them had a quilt-like collection of memories that pertained to their relationship with me. Not one detail was forgotten and their thoughtful remarks showed great kindness. When I woke, it seemed to me that all negative memories were absent from that dream, and of course the Bible says that…  

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

This morning, several readings talk about trials. One focused on the love of God being eternal, not depending on my performance. He loves because He is love. Love is His very nature.

Another reading talked about God’s goodness in trials. It referred to the stones on “Pebble Beach”  on the California coast, telling how a long line of white surf comes up, roaring and hammering among  the stones on the shore. These stones “are caught in the arms of the pitiless waves, and tossed and rolled, and rubbed together, and ground against the sharp-grained cliffs. Day and night forever the ceaseless attrition goes on — never any rest.”

Tourists come from around the world to gather the round and beautiful stones, treasuring them as souvenirs. However, around the point of a nearby cliff that breaks off the force of the sea, there is a quiet cove sheltered from the storms. Lying in the sun is an abundance of pebbles that are never chosen and taken home. Having escaped the turmoil of the waves, they remain in quiet peace and are left without that trial — but they are rough and not at all beautiful.

This is timely. I’m being tried with challenges never before faced and these trials feel like the relentless pounding of a high surf. I’d like some peace and quiet, yet Jesus had something to say about my situation, and a warning about thinking the Christian life should be an easy one:

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. (Matthew 7:13–15)

Another reading makes the comment to be thankful that God gives me difficult things to do. It says that  salvation is a glad thing, but also a heroic, holy thing that is testing me and also refining me, like those pebbles on the beach. Trials are part of the process whereby Jesus is bringing many “sons unto glory” (Hebrews 2:10) and God will not shield me from the wild surf of life if that is what it takes to transform my life. This is God’s grace. He wants me to ‘ornament’ His glory, not remain in my ‘rough and angular’ ugly state.

Verse 15 is a warning: beware of those who preach what is called ‘the prosperity gospel’ that Jesus wants me to be healthy, wealthy, and comfortable, for this is not a description of the life of Christ nor what Christians experience.

Not that He was sick, but Jesus persisted under suffering, as these verses say: “…for the joy that was set before him (he) endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” (Hebrews 12:1–4) Also, remembering that sin is various forms of wanting my own way.

PRAY: Jesus, Your love is more than that mushy elation when someone makes a person feel like the center of the universe. How vain I can be. Trials remind me of who I am, a creature who needs Your grace to even breathe, never mind face the wind and waves of life. Forgive my selfish complaining and enable me to also live for the joy that is set before me… Amen!

What about prosperity?

 

 

When the Bible says God will prosper His people, how should that be interpreted? Does it mean wealth, health and personal success? If so, this is an insult to the Christians in many parts of the world that are persecuted and dying violently because the people around them hate Jesus Christ. Does prosperity mean that no matter what I do or how I live, God will bless me? If so, them I’ve totally misread other parts of the Bible that say God is far more concerned with my character than my comfort.

A couple of weeks ago we heard a soft-spoken man tell of the treatment he received when he abandoned the faith of his family to follow Christ. Three times they tried to kill him, breaking his arm and causing him to flee his homeland to live as a refugee. Where then is the God who promised prosperity?

The problem is with our definition. In the OT, the words translated PROSPER are about peace, well-being and safety, not about money or a perfect life. When God prospers, He grants assurance and the ability to obey Him, no matter what is going on around us. True prosperity is happiness and contentment, inner joy and faith regardless of externals. It is finding well-being without depending on health, wealth and popularity to get it.

Yet it can also mean temporal blessings, not that they are the source of well-being but more like the result of it. Deuteronomy 28ff speaks of the blessings of obedience followed by the curses of defying God. In part, it says:

“The Lord will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake. And he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. The Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. And the Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.”

Yet as already pointed out, this promise is a teaching tool not a definite result for obedience. The best way to measure it is looking at Jesus. He never sinned or resisted His heavenly Father. If living a perfect life earned prosperity (as we define it) then Jesus should never have been put on a cross. However, if His prosperity is measured by God’s definition then He was successful because He lived totally in the will of God.

In those terms, that refugee ‘prospered’ during much of his ordeal. He didn’t retaliate nor did he abandon his faith. He fled and was hounded by the threat of death at the hands of people who should have loved him. He has very little possessions, yet he is faithful to the One who saved him from sin’s penalty — and in the mind of God that is prosperity and success.

When Moses died and Joshua took over his position of leadership, God said to him:

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

God’s words to this man motivate me to GAZE INTO HIS GLORY, to read and meditate on how God thinks and what His will involves for my life. If I do what He says, I will prosper — fully aware that in the promises of God, prosperity is not money in the bank, or prized possessions, or even a boatload full of friends. It is about doing God’s will in His strength without wavering. It is also realizing that I’ve not arrived yet, that my prosperity is incomplete, but one day, when I see Jesus as He is, I will be like Him. This promise gives me hope but also courage to press on, even through the times when God’s blessings seem far away and my confidence gives way to dismay. I stumble and waver but His promises are for an abundant life with an unchanging assurance. This is His prosperity for my soul.