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You can’t benefit from Christianity by trying to benefit from Christianity.
Whether it’s the Jewish people being gassed in Nazi Germany, or the Christian black people being gunned down in a church in Charleston, South Carolina, the Psalmist has described the condition that his followers are familiar with.
“Thou hast made thy people suffer hard things.” (Psalm 60:3)
Gehazi tried to profit from Elisha’s healing ministry, but it didn’t work (II Kings 5). Today, in spite of such lessons in the Bible, megachurch preachers still preach Gehazi’s lifestyle, saying, “You can have your best life right now!”
The Prophet Micah told us what God requires:
“He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)
God’s people aren’t at all immune from life’s problems: disease, hunger, poverty, cruelty, betrayal, separation, loneliness, pain, suffering. That’s why the people who say they belong to God so often fall away when they have to deal with prolonged misfortune. A person’s faith may survive a short experience of “bad luck.” They say, “I was in a terrible position, and I didn’t know how I could escape, but I prayed to God, and things got better! Praise God, I’m delivered!”
They forget that Jesus was crucified, that Paul was scourged and imprisoned, that the poor widow gave her penny, but was still a…