Struggles as Blessings

I once had someone tell me that they had everything they could ever need, so they didn’t have a need for God.  While this made me sad, I know chances are their circumstances will change at some point and maybe then so will their view about God. 

But what has really gotten me thinking lately is sort of the flip side of that statement, or at least related to it.  What about those of us who have put our faith in God and seek to serve Him but at the same time seek to avoid struggle?  Meaning, we say we love the Lord, but our expectation of the relationship we have with Him is that He will bless us, provide for us, pour out His riches on us, and remove difficult and challenging situations from our lives.  We might say otherwise, but our hearts live with that expectation deeply embedded in them.

What are the implications of this?  I think when our lives look too perfect, too prosperous, and too easy we limit the testimony that God can use to draw people to Him.  Think about it.  If your life is easy breezy and you’re trying to show people their need of God, they might think, “Sure she loves God.  He’s given her everything she has ever needed and asked for.  But what if the bottom fell out?  Would she still trust Him?”  They probably with just reason, might doubt that we would.

I just started reading the book of Job that is written about a man who loved God with all his heart.  He had it all.  But one day Satan comes along and challenges Job’s faith by saying this:

“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not  put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has?  You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.  But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse your face.” (Job 1:9-11 NIV84)

What happens after that is probably an example of someone who has experienced more pain, torture, and heartache than any man who has ever lived besides Jesus Christ. But the end outcome is that he continues to trust in God. God permits the circumstances to test Job’s faith and probably to give him needed credibility.   I bet people certainly took more stock in what he had to say after he went through all that.  I certainly do.

My prayer is not for poverty.  It’s not to be down and out.  But it’s also not to have it all.  Simply put my prayer is that God would pave the way for my life.  I wholeheartedly embrace the challenges and struggles that come with it as long as they build credibility in me as I share what God has done in my life with others.