Moving On

I think a common misconceived notion is that if I work hard enough or have the right amount of faith, no troubles will come my way.  God blesses the righteous and to hell with everyone else.  This is simply unbiblical and not true.  Ask Job.  If anything, God calls the Christian to a life of crosses and a certain amount of suffering.  This is not to say the Lord does not take absolute delight in blessing His children. 

Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!  -Matthew 7:9-11

I can attest to this verse.  In my short lived life, God has blessed me and my family beyond measure.  I cannot tell you how many times the car broke down or something came up and the Lord provided.  But we have endured a certain amount of suffering as well.  I won't get into the details but I think we can all agree every person does suffer.  But the reality is people do not suffer because they lack faith.  They suffer because we live in a fallen and sinful world.  And no amount of faith is going to change that.  Believer and unbeliever alike, we all suffer, we all are disappointed at times, we all experience heart break.   I have never lost a child.  I'd imagine that is one of the worst things that could happen to a person.  I've never been physically persecuted for my faith or had a crippling illness.  I don't know why I have been spared (thus far) in my life from certain calamities but I can tell you it is not because of me.  I do know I am not exempt from such tragedies.  These life altering events happen everyday.  If I am ever faced with such a crises I pray God would give me the grace to persevere.  The Christian cannot/ must not ever boast of their own works.  We are sinners and apart from God's grace we are nothing.  The difference for the Christian boils down to one phrase: hope in Christ.  Our hope is not in this fallen and decaying world.  The Rev. Lamb so rightly spoke when he said we must not look to the god of death for life.  We so desperately try to keep these fragile and feeble bodies of ours going because we believe this life is our hope.  That is why we turn to abortion, assisted suicide, stem cell research, and the like.  We look to death to ease our suffering.  But friends, take heart!  We were created by the God of life!  There is hope from the pain, the heart break, and the suffering.  God has given us His one and only Son to die on our behalf so that we could live!   Life!  That is what our God gives us.  That is who our God is.  That is why He tells us to eat and drink of His life giving body and blood while still on this earth.  That is why we can look past this earth and declare with the saints, This is not it!  There is so much more!  There is the kingdom of heaven that waits for all those who believe! Hope, my friends!  Don't ever give up this hope.