Often, in life, we just wish things could be easier. In fact,, that’s often really what we want out of our relationship with Christ. We enter into a relationship with Him that is often woefully one sided. We tend not to expend much effort, if any, trying to figure out what we can do to serve Him. We’re just trying to figure out what He can do for us and how we can get Him to do that. We want things to be easier and better. We surely don’t want to do or go through anything hard. Unfortunately, many people in ministry support this prospective. This has lead to a brand of Christianity where many people are lukewarm at best in their relationship with God. Being a lukewarm Christian isn’t good. I won’t go into it here but take a look at what Jesus said about lukewarm Christians in Revelation 3:14. There’s a whole lot to say about that and we may cover that in another article. Right now though, let’s get back to this idea of wanting things to be better and easier.
Wishing things could be easier often involves wishing we had more money and, to keep things simple in this article, I’m going to talk about this largely from a monetary prospective but this exact same principle applies to a lot of things, wanting better health, more respect, and many other things.
As I said, Wishing things could be easier often involves wishing we had more money. This makes the prosperity gospel very attractive to some people. These aren’t bad people. Many of them are good people who love God and who, according to their normal human nature, want more and better than they have. So, a doctrine that tells them that pursuing the God they love will give them the things they want is, naturally, very appealing to them. The only problem with this is that the prosperity gospel is a lie.
True or not, the prosperity gospel is very popular. I recently heard a sermon “Ease is Coming”, by Joel Osteen. I know of at least two Christian books which have been published within the last few years which are entitled “The Anointing of Ease”. I have heard a lot of preaching and read a lot of things that have been published which promote this idea of Christians chasing after ease. I caution you, don’t get caught up in chasing an anointment of ease. God has more and better for us than that.
God may not want us to have a lot of money because that helps to keep us dependent on Him. Look at Exodus, chapter 16. When the people of Israel were wondering in the wilderness, God provided manna for them to eat. He provided for them and met their needs. Think about how He provided. He provided it each day and they could not save it because, after one day, it would spoil. There was a reason for that. He did this so that they had to depend on Him for it. He often provides for us in the same way and for the same reason.
Look at Hosea, chapter 13, verse 6.
“When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.”
This was talking about Israel and, although it’s very easy to look back and judge them, we often act in basically the same way they did. When things are going well and we have plenty, we tend to forget about God, and so, we are often better off with things not going as well as we would like because that helps to keep us dependent on Him.
Look at Ecclesiastes, chapter 7, verse 3.
“Sorrow is better than laughter, For by a sad countenance the heart is made better.”
These words were written by Solomon, the wisest man who has ever lived. I used to read this and think that Solomon was having an off day here but experience and God has taught me that this really is true. I, and I think most people, grow in our faith and relationship with God most in the hard times, not the easy times.
Look at what God said to Paul in Second Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 9.
“My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
God’s strength really is made perfect in weakness and that includes financial weakness. This isn’t just true for financial weakness though. For me, it has been true for both financial and physical weakness, in the form of things related to my blindness, and it is true for all kinds of hardships. God will take care of us but He often gives us just what we need for the moment, without a lot of excess, in order to help to keep us close to Him.
Scripture does not teach that things will be easy for followers of Christ. In fact, it teaches that, in this world, things will very often be harder for us than it is for others who do not follow Him.
Look at what Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew, chapter 16, verse 24.
“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
Jesus said we should deny ourselves and take up our cross, if we are to follow Him. He said that if anyone wants to follow Him, they must do that. I emphasize that He said “anyone”. There is no special exception for you or me or anyone else.
Granted, for most of us, taking up our cross isn’t anything nearly as dramatic as it was for Jesus but it is much more dramatic than most of us usually have in mind. It’s dealing with the struggles in our every day lives and remaining true to Him. It’s truly trying to discern and follow His will for our life, even if it makes us uncomfortable, which it often does. It’s sacrificing absolutely whatever we have to in order to do what He asks of us. It’s repenting of those pet sins that we try to hang on to while telling ourselves that we’re OK. It’s struggling to live in a sinful world but not being of that world, so that we can serve as His light to that world. What all this ultimately comes down to is making a conscious choice to put ourselves last and Him first. If all of us who proclaim His name actually did that, this world would be a much different and better place. Most of us don’t do that though. We put ourselves first and what we’re looking for from him is that anointing of ease.
Now, you may not have read the books or watched the sermons that I mentioned about ease but chances are pretty good that you are doing what I did for a long time and what I still tend to do too much when I don’t depend on God enough to keep me grounded. You probably pursue ease a little too much. I challenge you to forget about pursuing ease and, in stead, pursue God with everything in you. Things may or may not be easier but, I promise you, things will be better, in the eternal scheme of things. In the end, isn’t that really what matters?
