Why God Doesn't Promise Christians an Easy Life?
What one must realize is that God has His will that He won't make things easy because of one thing- man is in truth, born to suffer. It's the terrible truth we must face. Job 5:7 declares that when man is born, he is meant for trouble. If God is so good, why does He allow it? Why does He allow suffering because of the sin of Adam and Eve? Doesn't it sound unfair? But we have to consider the fact that God could have destroyed Adam and Eve and then recreate man so we can still enjoy fellowship. But instead, He in His mercy chose to give them a second chance after they fell silent. Though they were cast out of Eden, they weren't left without their fur clothing that symbolized Christ's sacrifice. I seldom even ask why He chose to give Adam and Eve a chance or why did He allow Abel to die and Cain to live.
Life is unfair, face it, not ever since SIN entered into the world. Being a Christian means to be saved from sin but why doesn't God grant an easy life to Christians? Instead, why did Jesus continue to warn of persecution yet sent them anyway? We have to consider the fact that it does seem to be a bummer that God won't promise an easy life, but let's think about it, God doesn't want people who join in without repentance of their sinfulness. God doesn't want people who are just "casual followers" because they ate the bread.
So let's think about it- God allows persecution for one good reason- not to destroy but to edify the body. In fact, we might want to consider these truths in Scripture where God's strength is greatly demonstrated in circumstances that we least expect. God uses the most unexpected circumstances to turn things around. 2 Corinthians 12:9 states that strength is made perfect in weakness. It may sound stupid to the human nature but in God, it does make sense when we consider these things:
- Joseph the Dreamer only when he was wrongfully framed and jailed, only when the cupbearer forgot about him for TWO YEARS, did he come to good use later.
- Moses could not be trained to free and lead the people of Israel at the comfort of the Egyptian palace. He had to be trained in the deserts of Midian.
- Joshua and Caleb had to wait 40 years to enter the promised land. Would have God not done that, I don't want to imagine the murmurers fighting with these men of faith.
- Only in Ruth's dire circumstance of being trapped in poverty (while she stood by her first mother-in-law Naomi) did she meet wealthy Boaz. Would have she chosen to go back to Moab because of the poverty Naomi had, she would have not married the wealthy old bachelor.
- Boaz the old bachelor only got beautiful Ruth by waiting for God.
- David had to suffer many things before he could become king. When he became lax with his palace life, he fell into sin with Bathsheba. God had to kill his first son with Bathsheba to break his spirit before Solomon could be born.
- Job had to suffer many things before he got twice his wealth back. Sometimes I have to note that little problems I suffer are nothing compared to Job.
- Only when Peter had his failures like denying Christ three times, only then he learned to humble himself to be fit to be the first pastor in Jerusalem!
Also I thought of this one- the thorn in the flesh. In 2 Corinthians 12:7 we read that Paul had the problem of the thorn in the flesh. He asked God to remove it but instead, God chose not to. It does sound cruel for God to allow me to continue having my problems of inattentiveness, short-tempered, etc. but we must realize- God does NOT want His children to be self-dependent when they do His will. He just doesn't command and leave the believer to obey without His strength. No, God gives strength. In fact, God allows mistakes, heartaches, trials, tribulations, etc. because God wants people to be humble, only He deserves the glory and praise for the victory of the Christian. After all Philippians 2:13 we must remember it is God that works in the believer.