Life is full of good times and bad times. Life is full of ups and downs. Life is full of glorious treks to the mountaintop and horrible stumbles down to the valley floor. Nowhere and no place in the Bible can anyone definitively prove that there is not going to be days of darkness and despair to go along with the wonderful days of glorious light.

Where and how the notion crept into Christianity that somehow our faith gives us immunity from pain, sickness, sorrow, financial hardships and emotional breakdowns is beyond me. Jesus did not come to provide us a magic card which when inserted into God’s ATM provides unlimited resources and 24 hour per day joy, peace and prosperity. If this were the case, would not the apostles of the First Century have used such a card their whole lives and still be living in mansions somewhere today?

We live in a world where what should be many times is not and what shouldn’t be is. This is called “reality” as opposed to the fabricated fiction portrayed on television sitcoms and romance novels. The world is full of cruelty, injustice and every form of evil imaginable. To deny these realities is to deny the truth. When the truth is denied, a lie is believed.

God’s promises are not that there will never be bad times, but rather that He is with us and will guide us through those times. God never said we would not have to endure tribulations, afflictions and persecutions. To the contrary, God more or less assured us that these things are a part of living a Godly life in Christ Jesus.

What trips up many Christians is when they find out that the joy ride promised them when they got saved has a few bad bumps in the road. The first time they get bumped out of the wagon and fall flat on their rear end, they cry like a baby. “It’s not fair” or “Why me?” are common phrases coming from the mouths of newer Christians as they find out just because they get born again doesn’t mean the end of all their problems.

Listen, as long as we have to live in this world and be bombarded by all its trash in every realm, we are going to have problems. We are going to have to endure physical breakdowns of our bodies, mental anguish as we face perplexing problems with no apparent solutions and times of spiritual dryness as we deal with elements of our old nature. That is life and it has been since Genesis 3.

When the Apostle Paul lays out his personal litany of trials and tribulations in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, the things he had to go through were not pleasant nor to be desired. When Paul addressed the Corinthians at the beginning of the epistle, he noted the afflictions they were going through. When he wrote of the giving of the church in Macedonia he speaks of their “great trial of affliction” and their “deep poverty”.

When Paul wrote 2 Thessalonians he commended the believers for their patience and faith in all their persecutions and tribulations that they endured. In the epistle to the Philippians, Paul spoke of the sickness of Epaphroditus who was a dear companion of Paul and beloved by the believers. In the Book of Acts, Paul went around collecting a special offering to take to the needy saints in Jerusalem.

It cannot accurately be stated that as believers we have been given immunity from bad things. This terrible and wrong teaching has caused more problems with more Christians than any other wrong teaching I know about. Life as a Christian can and is tough many times. In fact, living the gospel the way it supposed to be lived makes life even tougher for a true believer than an unbeliever many times.

Do we have a God who can deliver? Of course we do. Our God is mighty God and able to do whatever needs to be done to save, bless and take care of His people. But, there is no promise in God’s Word that grants God’s people a free pass to some kind of life devoid of negatives, problems or “issues”. We need to teach God’s people how to be patient, strong and smart instead of throwing nice sounding verses taken out of context at them to imply there will be no negatives as a Christian.

When I see the “Alice in Wonderland” mentality of many Christians it makes me both sad and angry. Church is not an escape to some fairy tale land full of sights and sounds intended to take the senses to another realm. I advocate Christians having a good bucket of the cold water of reality dumped on their heads before going to church. Then they would appreciate what church is supposed to all about.

As this world spins steadily towards its appointed date with destiny, the results are in no ways going to be spiritually positive. Everywhere and in all realms, the wickedness and evil of man will continue to overspread and permeate this world to the point that only the truly committed Christians will stand and not fall prey to compromise or crumble under the pressure to quit.

Jesus forewarned of all this in the parable of the sower and the seeds. Few there are who are able to endure the pressures and pleasures constantly attempting to crush them or draw them away from the faith. That is why we must teach people how to take a stand and never give up or give in—regardless of the price. If Christians are afraid to stand for and on their faith, they will surely fail and fall into the various traps the enemy sets.

Please, I exhort all of us in the name of our Lord Jesus to take off the rose colored glasses and look with spiritual eyes at the condition of this world, our faith and even many of our churches. Don’t be afraid of the truth. Although it may hurt for a moment, it is better to know what is real and right than to live in a fantasy land of false promises.

May we all be as our heroes who came before us; unshakable in our faith and uncompromising in our commitment to take God at His Word no matter what the consequences may be. I pray we always remember that this life is but a short stop on the road which leads to our eternal home with the Lord.