These days, it seems like the "church in general" teaches more along the lines that God wants ONLY the best for us and they interpret "best" to be things like financial blessing, health, soaring careers, etc. I would agree that He does want the best for us, in that He promises to finish His work of salvation in us. And I do agree that sometimes He chooses to bless us with the things listed above, I disagree though on many levels with the whole philosophy of do good - get good! How do you explain God's love to the people in third world countries who faithfully serve Him but have no food, live in danger and daily suffer if you believe that idealogy. We confine our thinking too much to this earth and we need to be more eternally minded. (Colossians 3 and
2Corinthians 4:16-18)
Sometimes the "best for us" is a life that includes hardships, times filled with pain or struggles/trials. Sometimes those are the things God uses to bring us to Himself, Keep us close to Him, or to further His glory and plan in other's lives. That is the ultimate love, that He works all things to perfect us, and not to pamper us. Our idea of God's love is so skewed by what we think it should be. I'm so glad He defines love no matter how we understand it. If you think of the lives of the people God used in the bible, none of them had the "easy life" but all of them had the "abundant life"! I was encouraged by James' wife's testimony of just that. James MacDonald has cancer right now, and they are LIVING this testimony. Thought I'd share it...paste the address below in your browser to see the video interview.
https://www.walkintheword.com/donations.aspx?specID=150
7 years ago
1 comment:
Thank you for posting this! I have often thought the same but you put it to words better than I ever could.
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