I used to believe and teach the following about the Christian life:

• God wants to bless us materially and emotionally.
• God has only good things for us.
• We will walk in strength and prosperity.
• No weapon formed against us will prosper.
• God has a great future and a specific plan prepared for our lives.

And the most important one:

• Faith brings about all of these blessings into our reality.

Many Christians had a problem with these beliefs as I would share them outside of my like-minded church circle, especially the last one. Believing the above required that I also believe the following:

• A lack of faith was the reason people didn’t have all these things in their lives.
• Those not blessed materially and emotionally somehow brought that upon themselves.
• The bad things in people’s lives were only the weapon of the enemy and were a result of their lack of faith, or their sinful ways.

These beliefs can feed and strengthen the self-righteous mindset.

I have since realized that these beliefs are true but they are incomplete, they don’t fully reflect reality, and therefore they often don’t make sense.

I realized that there is not an ‘either-or’ battle about suffering, pain, lack and Gods blessings that many love to take a side on:

• Suffering is often a tool used by God to bring people to himself.
• Suffering is a reality in this world and as we suffer we often are sharing in the sufferings of Jesus Christ.
• Death to self is a powerful key to Christian maturity.
• Faith is only one aspect of the Christian life that we develop as we understand the reality of who Jesus Christ is and as we mature.
• Faith is not and should not be taught as a thing or an attitude in and of itself, faith comes from a revelation of Jesus Christ.
• Faith is not an independent thing or mindset to strive for and achieve (and then judge people about), that is just self-righteousness.

Making sense of the Christian life in one sentence:

The blessings from heaven, the promise of ‘no weapon formed against you shall prosper’ (Isaiah 54:17), the purpose of God for our lives, our bright future found in God, our life’s calling are all true and available to us but… they are found on the other side of ‘death to self’.

This concept of death to self is explained in 2 Corinthians chapter four.

2 Corinthians 4:10 always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.  11 For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death works in us, but life in you.

also

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

Blessings and lack, abundance and suffering are both our reality. Both are a part of the gospel, it is not either-or.  Power, blessings, authority, impact, love, family, AND… not getting his way, suffering, losing, weakness, abandonment were true for Jesus Christ and both are often true for us.

They reside on the other side of death to self, they reside on the other side of us not getting our way, on the other side of us not defending ourselves,  on the other side of us accepting our weakness.  On the other side of us not relying on our strengths, and our talents, and our skills.  They reside on the other side of us doing to others as we’d have them do to us.

This truth has huge repercussions for daily life, in our experiences and how we react to the world.

Getting to the other side of death to self is not easy for the strong, or for the talented, or for the young and powerful.  It is not easy for the great-ones among us.

But Jesus Christ will get all of his bride over there…one way or the other.

Please comment below.