If life is going terribly, does that mean God has abandoned me?
We often fall into the trap of believing that the Christian life will always be happy and carefree. Is there a shred of truth to that?
Liz Curtis Higgs says that while God does promise to prosper those who follow Him, we often misunderstand what it means to prosper. Nowhere in the Bible does it suggest that the life of the Christian will go well in worldly terms. In fact, it implies quite the opposite.
“I’m just going to say it. I’m discouraged and concerned by a church that seems to think that if you love God everything will go well. That’s not what the Bible says. Things did not go well for Jesus as it were. We have many wonderful believers among us who are suffering their own pain. Many of our friends are suffering right now as well.”
What does the Bible have to say about this suffering?
“The Bible says, why are you surprised at this? But we are, sometimes we’re surprised, discouraged, shocked, and we complain.
If God is a good God, why does he do something like this?
“Because he’s a good God and because he’s God and we aren’t.”
Liz says we run into trouble when we try to insert God in human terms. God transcends humanity and our world. Perhaps the best example of this is the story of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
“God is not like us, he gets to decide how the story goes. It’s the Hollywood ending, we want everything to go well. Hollywood couldn’t deal with this story, this is the story only God could tell, only God could live through and yet, what a blessing as we move on to the foot of the cross to see Jesus.”
Liz Curtis Higgs is the author of more than 30 books, with 4.5 million copies in print. In her best-selling Bad Girls of the Bible series, Liz breathes new life into ancient tales about the most famous—and infamous—women in scriptural history, from Bathsheba to Mary Magdalene. Liz’s award-winning historical novels, which transport the stories of Rebekah, Leah, Rachel, Dinah, Naomi, and Ruth to eighteenth-century Scotland, also invite readers to view biblical characters in a new light.
Featured Songs: Edge of Heaven – River Valley; Rescue Has Come – Lincoln Brewster; Find Me at the Feet of Jesus – Christy Nockels
Women of Easter
