My Soapbox Rant

I was listening to the radio on my way to the store and there was a short little spot on where they were saying that God is with you always and asking if you can trust Him to save you from what you fear most and if you could trust Him to keep you safe.

It seemed to me that the implication was, if you are a Christian, you don't have to worry about these things because God will save you from them.  I take issue with this.  God doesn't always save His people from what they fear most.  God doesn't always save His people from bodily harm or bad things happening to them.  Sometimes what we fear most does happen to us and God doesn't keep it from happening always.  We don't have worry because God is in control and soveriegn and He will use these things in His plan and purpose for our lives.

What God promises is that He will be with us in these things.  He will use these things to sanctify us and help us to be more Christlike.  These things are an exercise in learning to trust Him more.

I think it is a huge mistake to make people believe that God is going to save them from what they fear most or keep them always safe from sickness or bodily harm.  This simply is not true.  It is false teaching.  It is misrepresenting God.

How many people "make a decision for Christ" based on teaching like this?  How many people who do this get disillusioned and "stop walking with the Lord" because He isn't living up to the expectations they were given?  What is sad is that these people have most likely made a false profession of faith because it was based on false perceptions of who God is, yet, they have been assured that because they "prayed the prayer" their salvation is sure and they will go to heaven regardless of their lack of a walk of faith.

We need to be very careful how we characterize God to the unsaved.  We need to give an accurate picture of what the Christian faith is so people know what they are getting into and not making false professions of faith.  It is wrong to "sell Christ" as if He were a product that will cure all that ails you.