Growing up I went to church just about every Sunday. I didn’t have an option. My parents even made me acolyte (fun church word for light the candles). The pastor asked me to read the readings when no one else was around to do them. And over and over the message that was taught, often unknowingly, was that the more time we spent with Jesus the better our lives would become. This message has gotten so prevelant that pastors are preaching it and writing books about how to have our best life now with little mention of Jesus anywhere at all!

We’ve quickly grown into a society where we expect our lives to be easy just because we call ourselves by a certain name. It’s a horrible habit to be in actually! The Bible, however, is filled with pages upon pages of God’s people thinking they get a pass at life just because they are from a certain family. To say that we should have all good things happen just because we’re part of the family of God is like saying my parents should never have punished me for doing stupid things! That’s ludicrous!

The message of read more, attend more, give more, pray harder and you’ll have a better life isn’t only not found in the Bible, but it actually goes against everything the Bible teaches! Page after page we find God telling His people that bad stuff is going to happen. He even says in John 16 that life is going to be more difficult for you than for the rest of the world just because you follow me. Not a very appetizing thought in the eyes of the world!

So what do we do about it? How do we handle the troubles in life since there will be so many of them? We’re called to trust in God and to follow where he leads. What does this look like in our day to day lives? That’s the topic of this week’s message. Give it a listen.