Don't Get In "The Bless Me Boat"

Recently I have been thinking about the Lord, and our difficult times in life.  I think this is actually a very important topic for us to think about and understand so that we do not become offended with the Lord when things don't work out the way we think they should.

Somehow in our modern western Christian thinking, we have developed this idea that Christianity is some sort of "bless me" club, where the Lord's great concern is our happiness, and His favor and blessing in material areas is His primary way of showing His love and affection for us.  This type of thinking can cause us to question God's love when things are not going swimmingly, when we hit a rough patch, or when we encounter difficult times.

The modern "Prosperity Gospel" is a great example of this type of thinking and teaching.  Simply put, this is the teaching that good things happen to people God Loves (the righteous), and bad things happen to sinners.  Without going into much more about this, it is safe to say that Jesus, Paul, Peter and 9 of the 10 other apostles would be considered sinners if one really held hard and fast to this thinking, for clearly bad things happened to them all.

In his defense of his apostleship, Paul writes the following in 2 Corinthians 11:23-29 NIV:

[23] "Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. [24] Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. [25] Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, [26] I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. [27] I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. [28] Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. [29] Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?"

Clearly Paul missed the "bless me boat" and in his mind these difficulties were some of his qualifiers for his call and fulfillment of his life as a follower of Christ.  Paul didn't need fur coats, expensive jewelry, fine clothes, big mansions, or a big salary to showcase his "blessed" relationship with the Lord, instead He bore on his body the marks of Christ (Gal 6:17). 

It was not accidental that Jesus grew up in a poorer household, hidden from the lime-light, nor that He spent much of His time ministering in the "backwoods" of Israel.  There is something inherently tied to His ministry and the character of God.  In our humanness, we envision an all-powerful God, who owns all the silver and all the gold (Hagg 2:8), and the cattle on a thousand hills (Ps 50:10-12) as a loving Father who wants to dote on his sons and daughters, and give them good things, and we aren't wrong!  The issue is that we think that difficult times and struggles are from God as well, and a sign He doesn't love us anymore!  We think that God changes His mind and thinking about us based on our behavior!

Thank God, He is nothing like us!  I am so grateful that God is unchanging (Heb. 6:17) and has a perspective of me that is outside of time!  Paul writes that God has loved me (and you) since before the creation of the world (Eph 1:4-5).  If we wonder whether God loves us now, think back to the time you felt his love the strongest, and that is just a shadow of how much He loves you right now.  One of the unchanging parts of His character is His love for each of us. God's perspective allows Him to see the totality of our life, not jus the here and now, and from that perspective He loves us!  In other words, He sees every thing good we have ever done, everything bad, and everything in-between, and still chooses to love us more than we can ever imagine!  In our humanness this just doesn't make sense, and so we listen to teachers and thinking that invents God in our own image, ugh!

Going back to the theme of difficult times, what has me thinking about this is the fact that my honey has been sick for close to two solid months with the nastiest cold, sinus and bronchial infection I have ever seen.  She is taking antibiotics (just finished her third course), doing everything she can think of to get better, and praying constantly for healing, and yet she is sick.  If we had a prosperity gospel mindset, we could only conclude that she has some major sin in her life, and God is angry with her.  Why else wouldn't He be healing her?  

We read the Gospel accounts of Jesus healing everyone that was sick, everyone that came to Him, and we believe He is the healer and this is what He does!  We aren't wrong!  He is the Healer!  He loves to heal, He came to defeat the works of the enemy and sickness is one of those.  He established His kingdom, proclaimed it and demonstrated it, and one of the characteristics of His Kingdom is that healing is available.  As Jesus said to His apostles,  "As you go, proclaim this message: 'The kingdom of heaven has come near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.( Matthew 10:7-8 NIV).  

So, how do we understand God's love, His character and willingness to heal, His Kingdom demonstration of healing, His blessing and provision, and at the same time long-term sickness, difficult times, seasons of unemployment or financial difficulty?  This really is one of the oldest questions out there.  The book of Job, considered the earliest of the books of the Bible, is all about these questions.

First, I certainly don't have all the answers, or even many answers!  In fact I probably have more questions than answers.  I do, however, have a relationship with the Lord, and in that relational context I am able to lay hold of some basic truths that are helpful.  We have walked through difficult seasons of cancer and illness, financial struggles, being laid-off, experienced the death of loved ones, and yet have experienced intimate relationship with the Lord through it all.  Even though at times we didn't feel loved, He loved us.  In the same way that in the midst of tiresome and strenuous times at work, when I can barely see the light, or even spare a moment to think about anything else, and certainly am not feeling any emotional love from my honey, I know she loves me.  In the same way, God's love for us is not related to our emotions, or our feelings!  His love transcends all of that!  

I have been in different Christian services where the Lord is healing people all over the place, and at the same time, others are not being healed!  We struggle to explain this, and so we make up theological explanations.  I have often thought of all the other sick people laying by the pool of Bethesda waiting for god to heal them through the waters, and Jesus walks through their midst and just heals the one guy.  Do we believe that God didn't love all the rest of the people in that room?  Or how do we deal with the fact that there were towns and villages that Jesus didn't visit during His ministry, where sick people weren't healed?  What about the guy that is later healed by Peter and John (See Acts 3:1-10) who was put outside the temple every day, is it possible Jesus walked right by him?  Or the blind man Bartimaeus that Jesus just walked by as he was sitting by the road begging?  (That one turned into a healing, but only after the unrelenting calling out of the blind man - see Mark 10:46-52). There are too many examples to list, but it is clear that our simple human explanations fall far short of understanding and explaining the mysteries of God!

God in His manifest wisdom, chooses to take the path of the lowly, seemingly hidden from the world, revealing Himself to those that seek Him out, doing things in ways we would never do, confounding the wise, seemingly foolishly blessing those that don't even recognize Him (See Matt 5:43-48), hiding His kingdom in the hearts of men and women, loving us beyond knowledge, and yet allowing us to choose however we want.  We can reject Him and He still loves us and chooses to bless us!  God, in His perfect revelation of His nature, in Jesus, shows us His character, and suffers and dies for us!  There are countless saints and followers of Christ who have suffered persecution, even death because of their relationship with Christ. Paul writes of the mystery in his letter to the Philippians 3:7-11 NIV:

[7] "But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. [8] What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ [9] and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ---the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. [10] I want to know Christ---yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, [11] and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead."

There is a great mystery that Paul touches in verse 10, the participation in the sufferings of Christ.  I certainly don't understand it, nor the treasure that is found there, but Paul certainly had grasped something that most of us want to run from.  There is something in the heart of God that highly values the sufferings and difficulties of His beloved ones!  His most visible example is found in Christ Jesus, but our Church is full of other examples as well.  

This morning, I am just encouraged to continue to believe in the Love God has for me and my sweetheart, in the midst of anything and everything we might experience.  I am convinced that there is so much more to relationship with Him, than the provision I am blessed with daily.  

My prayer for us all is that we might know the surpassing love of God, as a solid rock of relationship upon which we can stand!   My prayer is that we do not become offended by god when He doesn't do what we want Him to do!  My prayer is that we would discover the treasures that are present in our sufferings and difficulties as we continue to praise God and worship Him in the very midst of our difficulty.

Amen and Amen