I do not know when or who started the idea that if one serves God and lives their lives to please and serve Him, then God will protect them by special intervention from pain, suffering, misfortune and other disasters that occur in life. This idea of divine protection has even been accorded to our nation. It is a prevalent notion, but we need look no further than the recorded life of Jesus himself to see that even the most perfect human life does not secure such divine protection.
How much misunderstanding and mental anguish could be avoided if this erroneous idea were exposed and let go? How many people who suffer some calamity of one sort or another say, “Why should this happen to me? I’ve always lived a decent life.” Some people even feel that God has somehow broken His side of the relationship (or reneged on the supposed bargain) in allowing illness or calamity to happen to them.
This notion or idea is nowhere to be found in the New Testament. No such arrangement, bargain, or deal is offered to those who open their lives to the living Spirit of God. They are guaranteed that nothing, not even the worst kind of persecution, the worst misfortune or even the death of the body, can do them any permanent harm or separate them from the love of God. They are promised that no circumstance of life can defeat them in spirit and that the vast resources of God are always available to them. They are also assured that the ultimate purposes of God can never be defeated no matter what! But, the idea that if we please God, then God will especially shield us is an erroneous one and has no place in Christianity. “In the world you shall have trouble, but be of good cheer…” (John 16:33).
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