Too many of us are settling for a shallow faith.
One that says if I do, then God will do.
A faith that equates God's “blessing” with an easy life.
And God's “goodness” with prosperity and position.
I cringe every time I hear someone express this basic sentiment—
God must not love me because my life is hard.
I cringe because I have been there in a million ways.
I have felt betrayed by God—as if He had forgotten me.
I have felt at times like God has let me down by the way this earthly life has played out.
There have been seasons where I could barely bring myself to utter a prayer—and I thought to myself if He truly cares, why has He not made this all better? Why has He not answered the prayer I pray a thousand times over? Why has He not healed my child? Why has He not made the pain go away?
My heart is still raw to the reality of these feelings some days. It’s a place I walk in and out of.
But I also cringe because as I look back, here is what I recognize:
Even when I considered turning my back from God, His faithful presence was steadfast.
His truth, the truth of Scripture, it never promises easy—not here on this earth. In fact, Jesus tells us the opposite, “in this life you will have trouble.”
And when we allow our faith to be anchored to these shallow conceptions, we cheat ourselves out of a true, rich, rooted faith.
Because as soon as life gets hard, our shallow faith falls to the ground. And we have two options.
1. We let it stay there. Fallen over. We give up hope in Christ, which is the only true hope we have. We allow the faith we once had to die.
OR
2. We ask the hard questions. We walk through the excruciatingly silent seasons. And through it, we begin to grow roots. We recognize that He is the only hope and we become unwilling to release that. And our faith that was once shallow gains strength.
Often our shallow faith grows deep and enduring through the most difficult seasons. And that’s something you can’t know until you know.
But I cringe again because we have got to do better. We have got to share the whole truth, unhindered by our feel-good agendas. YES, God is good. Yes, He loves abundantly. YES, He desires to bless His children.
But ultimately His goodness, the fullness of His love, the blessing that He freely gives—that cannot be experienced wholly in the brokenness of this earthly life. That is ETERNITY, ya’ll. It’s the price He paid for us. It’s the rescue of our souls.
And so, as hard as it is in our humanity, we give up shallow faith and shallow thinking. We trade it in for what is true.
This is the hope we have that cannot be moved by any experience we have in this life—a God who defeated darkness and made a way for us, though we cannot fully experience it yet.
And when that concept feels far away, trust me, friend, God is not.
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