Yesterday, a friend of mine forwarded this blog post, by a well known pastor whom I respect greatly. It posed the question, “What would you be willing to attempt for God if you knew you could not fail?”
It reminded me how much I’ve always disliked this question.
The premise behind this idea sounds noble enough (no pun intended); that you should do bold things for your God, that life is short and worthy of courageous acts for one’s faith, but inherent in the question is a dangerous myth that permeates modern American Christianity: God guarantees success.
These kinds of “rah-rah” messages go down easy. They sound good. They are inspiring and challenging, and they are immenently share-able. But are they Biblical?
As I read the Scriptures, I see a great deal of failure; of individuals, of cities, of entire nations. (In fact, for 66 books, thousands of years, and infinite numbers of people, only one guy really gets it right).
The eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews, gives us a lengthy and powerful list of brave, faithful, Godly people, whose lives ended without things coming together; without a tidy resolution and without, well, “success”.
The Bible lifts us these people as heroes, not because of what they acheived, but simply because they did something radical in the face of fear and in with no guarantee, other than God’s presence and His purpose.
This underscores the sobering truth we see every day…
Christian businesspeople file for bankruptcy.
Brave, Jesus-honoring nonprofits go under.
Followers of Jesus get divorced.
Christian missionaries are persecuted and killed.
Godly parents have kids who succumb to addiction.
Was God not in those things? Is His will not still being done? Is His Kingdom not still permeating the dough? Furthermore, would those who walked through such disappointment still choose to do so if given the chance to opt-out?
Friends, don’t be fooled into seeing God as some free pass to Happy Town. Don’t count on faithfulness to yield comfort or ease or prosperity or notoriety.
As you do act in faith, God may give you what you perceive to be success, but He will definitely do something greater; allow you to participate in His redemption of the world.
So the real question for we who aspire to the name Christian is: What would you be willing to do for God, if failure was guaranteed?
The act of faithfully following Jesus and being obedient to His call upon your life, is the success.
