Why should a genuine child of God expect a life of suffering?
God makes sure that some of us do not get their expectations of an earthly happiness fulfilled in order to prove to Satan that God’s faithful children are not driven by ulterior, self-centred motives when they seek to live a life pleasing to their Maker…
By remaining faithful to him in the awful events that crush our spirit completely to the point of shouting:
“Father, why have you forsaken me” our God proves his arch-enemy wrong!
Another explanation I find is given in John 15: 1-2 where Jesus says that we, his followers, can be likened to a branch that is attached to him, the vine.
The branch that responds most to the gardener’s pruning efforts, by improving its yield, will be pruned again and again, so that it may become even more fruitful!
Being pruned is obviously quite unpleasant and painful, but God is more interested in making better people out of us than in making us happy…
And then:
Is it right to want to have a better treatment out of this world than our role-model had?
Should we really expect to have a better earthly life than my Lord Jesus and his apostles had?!
They were men of many sorrows, aquainted with grief! (Isaiah 53)
Jesus and the apostles did not promise us blessings and happiness in this world! On the contrary:
The New Testament is filled with passages that tell us clearly what a child of God is to expect while in this evil world:
Many many sorrows!
So many that few of those who have chosen to enter through the narrow gate and follow our Lord Jesus will ever reach their destination, the Kingdom of God!
Most will fall away while along the sorrowful road that leads them there!
“The entrance gate that leads to Eternal Life in God’s Kingdom is narrow, and the road that follows is filled with sorrows, so much so that few are those who will ever receive this Life!” (Matthew 7: 14)
Every genuine believer must be determined to finish the road, to remain faithful until the end. To get there!
Only then will we receive the “life to the full” that Jesus promised us. (. )
We must remain faithful, pleasing to our Lord, our God and Saviour until the end, no matter how sorrowful, discouraging and depressing the road may be!
Let us stop asking: “Why, Lord! Why me?!”
A sorrowful life on earth is what normally awaits every true child of God.
Let us not allow the happy-clappy religious ones convince us that God wants us to live a happy life filled with blessings on earth:
It only leads us away from what our God is really trying to do in our earthy lives: Make better people of us!