Aiden Wilson Tozer (April 21, 1897 - May 12, 1963), a revered Christian pastor and theologian once stated that: “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.” This kind of insight into the mysterious workings of God’s love and providence is significantly missing in today’s popular Christianity.
Many of the celebrated pastors and Church leaders today, particularly, those with mega-Churches and mega-followers are mostly ardent preachers of instantaneous healing and prosperity. Their honey-laden voice, fine sartorial elegance, and convincing aura of material success lead crowds of vulnerable, desperate and gullible people into believing that God will deliver “on demand” according to their expectation. By skilled manipulative use of verses from the Bible, they raise the expectations of their hearers, give phoney prophecies and make astounding promises on behalf of God.
When your understanding of God is shallow and your relationship with Him is merely skin-deep, it affects both your reasoning and your faith. Your reasoning will be shallow, and your faith will be merely skin-deep. Such people get easily carried away by popular frauds for whom the gospel is purely to make money from both the poor and the rich alike.
Tozer’s insight is apt and biblical. The devil may be the arch-enemy of believers, but God is also in the business of permitting, and sometimes even directly causing pain.
As God says: “I create the light and make the darkness. I send good times and bad times. I, the LORD, am the one who does these things.” (Isaiah 45:7 – New Living Translation). In another place, God says: “Look now; I myself am he! There is no other god but me! I am the one who kills and gives life; I am the one who wounds and heals; no one can be rescued from my powerful hand!” (Deuteronomy 32:39 - New Living Translation)
The tendency to constantly blame the devil for every affliction is a sign of a very shallow understanding of the mysterious workings of the providence of God. God wants all of us to have a growing personal relationship with Him through the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants us to be confident of His care and love at all times, even when there is pain and disappointment. Life is tough and can be very rough, even for those who trust in God. Our understanding of God’s love must be robust enough to cover both good times and bad times; to cover the pain of crucifixion and the joy of resurrection!
We all want to see evidence that God is answering our prayers and we want to be re-assured that God is interested in our material comfort and well-being. God certainly is! It is very challenging and very puzzling when God is not behaving to form. But, listen, “Any faith that must be supported by the evidence of the senses is not real faith.” At the end of the day, “True faith rests upon the character of God and asks no further proof than the moral perfections of the One who cannot lie.” Guess who said this: Aiden Wilson Tozer. More importantly, this is also the teaching of the Bible that some people are probably hiding from you, and fleecing you!
God sometimes hurts us for our own good…
