The Folly of Sunshine and Roses Faith

David P. Gray, Sr.

I’m not quite sure where the idea came from that being a believer somehow meant that everything was going to work out the way WE want it to.

I can tell you that this idea didn’t come from the scriptures.

If someone told you that if you just had enough faith then all your dreams, wishes, and even prayers would come true — they lied to you. And I’m sorry they did that because it’s a misrepresentation of the gospel message. At its core the idea that following Christ will make everything better for you is a completely ego-centric message and a distortion of the true gospel. And it sets people up to be disillusioned with God.

This has bothered me since early in my faith walk. I can remember in 1988, the first time I heard someone say they were “mad at God” because something didn’t happen that they were hoping. Honestly, I just didn’t really get it. I suppose part of that is because I wasn’t raised “in church” and so I wasn’t duped by that message.

The only way someone can be “mad at God” in these situations is to believe that God is obligated to abide by our every whim. That man ended up falling away from faith because what he had been told about God didn’t line up with what he was experiencing in real life. And many people I know have followed a similar path.

I find it difficult to understand why Jesus followers are surprised when life sucks sometimes. Guys — life is hard! I know you’re all surprised by that statement, right? (Do you hear my sarcasm oozing through?). Bad stuff happens. Things don’t’ work out. Medical issues arise. Financial burdens present themselves. People mistreat you. This IS the real world. And believers are not somehow magically exempt from hardships.

Jesus himself said that “in this world you WILL have trouble” (John 16). But He followed that up by saying, “but, if you follow Me faithfully, nothing will ever go wrong! and if it does, I will deliver you from all of it!” ← No, no He didn’t say that.

He said, “I’ve told you these things in advance so that in Me, you may have PEACE” (John 16). It is clear from the context that the idea is that peace is found — in Him — in the MIDST of trouble; not peace because there is no trouble.

Later, Paul said that the world, including creation itself, is subject to “decay and corruption.” In other words, using the DGV (David Gray version), the world is going downhill. So why would we expect that we would be exempt from the decline? Or that when we did experience hardship that God is somehow obligated to fix it?

To further explain his point, Paul adds, “I consider that the SUFFERINGS of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8 ). Meaning, this present time is accompanied by …. sufferings. There is no way around that.

To deny these things is to deny reality.

Paul’s point is that as believers, our perspective should be dictated by the view of the eternal. It is not in the events and circumstances of this life that we have hope. It is in the fact that there is coming a day when God Himself will right the ship.

But the good news is, that is only one-half of the story.

And this is exactly why Paul asks, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” (Romans 8:35). Notice what Paul does NOT say. He does not say that those things will never happen to believers. In fact, he is writing TO believers and the entire question assumes that they might, and I would say — they probably will. Trouble. Hardship. Persecution. Lack. Danger.

When Paul wrote this list, these were not hypothetical possibilities to Paul. They were part of his actual life. He had already experienced all of these things. And his experience and his hope was in the fact that none of them separates him from God's great love.

Are we somehow more privileged than Paul?

The promise is not that faith keeps us from every painful circumstance. The promise is that no painful circumstance can separate us from Christ. There is a significant difference. One message says, “God loves you, so He will make sure nothing bad happens.” The gospel says, “Even when bad things happen, nothing can remove you from the love of God.” THAT, my friends, is the hope that gives us the strength to survive the real world.

Sometimes God changes the circumstance. Sometimes He does not. Sometimes the prayer is answered exactly as we hoped. Sometimes the answer looks nothing like what we wanted. But our confidence was never supposed to rest in our ability to control the outcome. It rests in the unchanging love of Christ — a love that remains present through trouble, hardship, grief, disappointment, and even death itself.

Look, I’m not trying to minimize people’s pain and sorrow. Not at all. It’s just that at my core I am a realist. There is real pain and real sorrow and real difficulty. And I am not trying to minimize the difficult, often painful, emotional weight we carry in and through our storms.

Jesus wept at the news that his friend, Lazarus, had died. He wept seeing the grief of Lazarus’s family. He expressed these emotions even knowing full well that He was going to bring Lazarus back to life shortly (John 11). Emotions are genuine and should not be denied. Sometimes — life hurts; and it’s okay to own that. To deny that is also to also deny reality. Which directly addresses the other side of this equation: many believers will absolutely deny they are experiencing anything difficult because they think it shows a lack of faith. But the scriptures and the earliest believers embraced both. Life can be difficult. Emotions are real. And yet, God is faithful and His love for you is unceasing.

Jesus literally laid out a compare and contrast scenario. He declared that the world would be full of tribulation, but He also promised that peace could be found in Him (John 16:33).

And I would say - only in Him. Not in circumstances. Not in breakthroughs. Not in successes. In other words, both things can be true. You can have tribulation and have peace — but only when you wholeheartedly follow, believe and trust the Son of God Himself.

God never promised that our lives would be all sunshine and roses. He promised something far greater. He promised that we have been reconciled to the creator of the heavens and the earth through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son and there is coming a day when the Kingdom of God will reign completely. THIS is what motivated the earliest believers.

Selah.