The Normal Hard Life - October 23, Readings: Jeremiah 49-50, 1 Thessalonians 2–3, Psalm 119:33–40, Proverbs 26:1

Links to Today's Readings 

(NOTE: The first three chapters of Lamentations were included in yesterday's readings - by mistake. Not sure why that happened.) 

• If you love Jesus and serve him, it will all work out. 
• Just pray and ask God, and the the answer will come. You will get what you want.  
• If there is trouble and hardship in your life or in your church, you must be doing something wrong. If you'd just get your life right, your heart right, all the problems would go away. 

I would make two assertions about what I just said. First, you probably know, in your heart, that those statements are false. Jesus died on a cross. The Apostles suffered and were martyred. The early church served Jesus faithfully and suffered dramatically. Loving Jesus and serving him is no guarantee that everything is going to go well.

But I also have observed that while we know that truth in our heads, our hearts have heard another message. When something goes wrong I wonder why God is mad at me. What did I do, God? We have adopted a variation of the Eastern concept of karma - what goes around comes around. You get what you deserve.

But life isn't like that. We are blessed far beyond what we deserve and often we suffer in ways we don't deserve - we suffer for Christ, for righteousness' sake.

Paul understood this. In fact, for him, suffering was the norm. He used his sufferings, in 1 Corinthians 11, as the proof of his ministry. He constantly reminded the church, as did Peter, James and John that those who live godly in Christ could expect to suffer. And in speaking to the church in Thessalonica, he used their suffering as a sign that they were doing things right.

For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16

The servants of Christ have always suffered. We should not be surprised when things get hard, when they don't work out. I still do. I get discouraged and down. I wonder why God has forgotten me. But the word tells us that this is how things are, how they always have been, and how they always will be. 

Father, remind me daily that your love is not seen in making my life easy, but in using me through the hardships to make a difference for you.