“The
Lord your God will soon bring you
into the land he swore to give you when he made a vow to your ancestors
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is a land with large, prosperous cities that you
did not build.
11 The houses will be richly stocked with
goods you did not produce. You will draw water from cisterns you did not dig,
and you will eat from vineyards and olive trees you did not plant. When you
have eaten your fill in this land, 12 be
careful not to forget the Lord, who rescued you from slavery
in the land of Egypt.” - Deuteronomy 6:10-12 (NLT)
How
do you deal with adversity? How do you
deal with the problems and pains of this life? In
his book, The Problem of Pain, C. S. Lewis wrote, “God whispers to us
in our pleasures, He speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains. Pain is
His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
As
we address the problem of pain, we also need to talk about the problem of
prosperity. Prosperity brings
responsibility, because we are not owners; we are stewards. Everything God gives to us is a gift, and we
will be held accountable for what we do with the resources He has made
available to us. Therefore, as a
follower of Jesus Christ, we need to always remember that in all things, we are
always dependent upon God.
When
life gets really hard and adversity hits, we pray. We become very dependent
upon God —and so we should. But, on the
other hand, when life is going reasonably well, we tend to forget about God and
prayer.
When
the terrorists attacked New York City on 9-11-2001, and 3,000 Americans were
killed in one day, the following day churches were filled to overflowing with
people seeking God, and lifting up prayers.
But only a short time later attendance was back to normal.
The
psalmist wrote, “Before I was afflicted I
went astray, but now I obey Your word” (Ps. 119:67).
Adversity
wakes us up and keeps us humble, while prosperity can make us proud and
self-sufficient. We tend to forget about God when we are in good health, have
lots of credit cards, or a bank account full of money. But when the economy goes south or the doctor
has bad news, we turn to God, because we are reminded of what really matters.
It’s
hard to thank the LORD for adversity in our lives. We never say to God, “Thanks for making me
sick” or “I’m sure glad I lost all that money, I really needed that.” No, of course we don’t respond that way. But on the other hand, God is in control, and
we need to humbly remember that in the face of hardship, trials and
difficulties, God is allowing us the opportunity to depend on Him more. And in
the process, we actually get to KNOW Him better.
May
the LORD bless you abundantly, but may you always remember where the blessings
came from.
Yours
in Christ,
Roger
