What We Are Promised

From a letter that was forwarded to me by a friend:

"Why is God so fickle in whom he chooses to save or touch or heal? What does it take to get God to pay attention? Is it living right? Is it making promises to Him? Or does it even matter what we do or don't do? It doesn't seem to. Because there are people out there who do the best they can and still end up losing a child or a spouse or being hurt in some other way. And when it mattered to them to hear God or see Him working, he didn't show up.

"So people and the church talk about God's power, but it's as if they are saying or should say, 'Here's this great big God with all this power. Believe in Him because that's the right thing to do, but we can't promise that he is actually going to come through on the important stuff. We can't really tell you that all of the power we talk about applies to you or will be made visible in your life.' I feel like that's the more honest response to anyone who is wondering about the power of God."

My response:

We are never promised that things will be easy or happy for those who choose to serve God. In fact, time and again the Bible demonstrates that God's "favorites" (Joseph, Moses, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Jesus, Paul, etc...) quite frequently have very difficult lives. As much as televangelists would have you believe that wealth, health, and happiness can be had if only one says the right prayers or contributes the right sum, these promises are illusory.

The rewards that God offers to those who choose him are wholly different than what we would imagine if we were choosing them for ourselves. God offers a life of meaning, hope, and joy. When we choose to surrender ourselves to God, we are offering our lives as sacrifices to a greater good than is easily imaginable. We are deciding to abandon the personal desires and pleasures that we would otherwise hold so dear so that we can be instruments of God's love, peace, justice, and mercy to the rest of the world. As we follow God's calling, we are no less likely to encounter hardships, frustrations, and difficulties -- but these are balanced out by the assurance God places within us that our struggling and our pain is not in vain. Once we open ourselves up to God, we can have hope and joy in the knowledge that God will redeem even the most difficult of our circumstances by turning the things of this world to his own glory and by offering us confidence of the eternal life and salvation that he will provide us in a world beyond our current comprehension.

The first part of the letter's question asserts that God is unpredictable or inscrutable when it comes to bestowing blessings, and it asks what anyone can do to tap into God's blessings. I'd argue that we all have God's attention, and we all have God's love. But as I've pointed out, the only thing we are guaranteed in this life is the comfort and assurance that comes from trusting in God and acknowledging that our own understanding is imperfect. This sort of radical trust can be very, very uncomfortable for someone who has their own idea of what would be best - for themselves, for the people they love, for the world at large - and who isn't used to trusting in things that they can't readily understand. But when you take that leap of faith - when you believe that God can and does bring good out of situations that seem hopeless to us - you begin to appreciate how that God's ways truly are higher than our own.

As for what is expected of us, Jesus put it very simply: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments." Matt. 22:37-40. Promises are important, because in becoming Christians we are asked to commit ourselves to live the way that Jesus taught, in the service of God and for the expansion of the Kingdom that Jesus announced. Belief in God and in the authority of Jesus is also valuable, because it propells and reinforces the commitment you make in becoming a Christian. But what should be remembered above all else is that the gifts we receive from God, both earthly and eternal, are the result of God's overflowing love and grace rather than the result of anything we do. The Bible promises us that when we turn to God, humbly recognizing our own failures and inadequacies, accepting the love, forgiveness, and peace that God so freely offers, and endeavoring with our whole heart to conform ourselves more perfectly to the ideal demonstrated by Jesus, God will prove trustworthy and will work within our lives in ways we could never previously imagine.
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What do y'all think? There are definitely places in the Bible that might seem to suggest that worldly prosperity sometimes follows from spiritual excellence, and we are also told in some places that God will grant requests of the truly faithful. Am I selling God short by suggesting that we aren't really guaranteed any material success? On a separate note, when you are talking to a non-Christian about the benefits of the Christian life, what are the points that you emphasize? Are there subjects or questions that you choose not to talk about with non-Christians?