Romans 8:28

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28 NIV

I commented this on the blog of a Christian brother who had expressed the following…

But what I was doing was trying to remind God of His Words. I was trying to throw the bible at Him and say “Look, God, you said it right here. Are you going to live up to it?”

This is what must happen in the mind of every Christian soul at the beginning of his walk with Christ, particularly in those churches that push this attitude down his throat and tell him it is the right way to think. "Take God at His word!" and "Name it, and claim it" and the so-called Word of Faith preaching that abounds on TBN and is central to the "prosperity gospel"… "God doesn't want you, precious saints, to be poor, so be rich!" and "If you are poor, you do not trust in God enough to bless you." All this pathetic, nauseating, gut-busting, false prophesying just turns my stomach. Forgive me for mentioning it, but it has destroyed individuals, families, even whole churches.

But, as I said, every Christian, perhaps, has had this thought, and it comes from the Bible, especially in Psalms, that if you fear God and keep the commandments, God will bless you.

The first half of my adult Christian life was a gradual proof of this principle, and I really identified with Joseph in Egypt—even though I was “in prison” in the world system, by having faith in God, keeping my mind on the things above, staying simple and uncontaminated by the world, etc., by just being consistent, I found myself being advanced into not only prosperity but even domestic happiness—for a while. Like I said, it seemed like my life was “proving” God’s Word right, just as I expected.

Then, in the second half of my adult Christian life, uh oh, things started changing. From being a mere laborer I had been raised to general manager of a company that I had helped get started; then overnight, one day, for no apparent reason (and none was ever given), after seven years of service I was demoted to the bottom of the corporate pile, becoming the subordinate of a middle manager I had hired (now he was upper management). No matter what I did, I was never allowed to be even a lower manager again. As I said, all this was done to me without any explanation. I should have left, but I didn’t, because I follow the principle of following the cloud: when the cloud moves, I move. The cloud didn’t move! Oh well, so much for identifying with Joseph in Egypt. But this was not all.

Gradually (now that I look back, I can see it started about twenty years ago), my domestic life, wife and family, started going awry. What about the rewards of a man who fears Yahweh? “Your wife a fruitful vine on the inner walls of your house, your sons around your table like olive shoots,” and all that kind of blessing. Everything was developing so nicely, not that we didn’t have periodic challenges on the material level, but the spiritual blessings made up for them—until some dark shadow started coming between family members, driving us apart like an irresistible wedge. Now, I have found a new character from the Bible to identify with—Job. All this time I have feared God, fulfilled the commandments, kept away from sin, etc., etc., and look at me now! I’m not sitting in the ash pit scraping my sores, not yet anyway, but where did the “blessing” go, and why?

I have been studying the book of Job a lot lately, but I don’t presume to compare what has been happening to me with what happened to him. Still, the mystery is there, and I am exploring it because I have no choice. God’s will is inscrutable, and He is not a tame God, yet He is not capricious either—He works everything to obtain the good of His worshippers, even when the things that happen to them don’t fulfill the “promises” and the “blessings” in the pages of scripture.

The result of my life experience of 33 years as an adult Christian is that I trust God more than ever, and trust myself less, including how I view what happens to me. I don’t use the Bible anymore (if I ever did) to “gauge” God’s promises against my expectations, or to keep accounts to make sure I am being rewarded by Him tit for tat. The fact alone that God is, and that He is with me, whatever more could I want or desire? As for His blessing and protection, why it’s always been there even in the worst of circumstances. As deep as the hole is that we can ever fall into, He is always waiting at the bottom to break our fall, and lift us up, perhaps in a way we never could have imagined.

Blaise Pascal carried his testimony on a piece of parchment sewn into the inner lining of a jacket that he always wore. I carry a piece of my testimony, which I wrote down in a time of great anxiety and trouble that I was going through about fifteen years ago, in the inner fold of my wallet. It’s written on a now much frayed old piece of yellow notepad paper. I will take it out of my wallet, and copy down what it says for me and you…

In times of suffering and distress
remember that the Holy Spirit is still present with you.
Hardships are there to remind us that we are,
after all, only disciples.
And Jesus can walk anywhere.
7/27/92

There, I’ve put it back in the little zipper-protected hiding place inside my wallet. I haven’t looked at it in a couple of years, but it is in this knowledge and realization that I have been living my life at least since the time I wrote it down.

Where did the words come from?
Oh, nowhere in particular, just from the Lord.
You see, He talks to me a lot,
and sometimes I actually listen.