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Sweet Drudgery
- 04/16/07
- 20
One of the most destructive forces that has faced the church in recent years is the teaching that God gives Christians faith so they can exercise it to their own benefit. This gospel of health and wealth teaches that our faith allows us to demand from God whatever we desire and that He is beholden to give it to us. If only our faith is strong enough, we can have whatever we want or need. God will give us money, power, or good health if only we ask in faith. This teaching is destructive on many levels. It focuses the attention of those who claim to be Christians on themselves rather than on Christ and teaches that God exists for our benefit and enrichment. It leaves men and women broken by their supposed lack of faith when they summon the heavens for riches or healing and are met with only silence. It also brings forward into this life benefits that God has reserved for life eternal. Nowhere in the Bible does God promise us that we will live lives of complete fulfillment on this side of eternity. Rather, the Bible tells us that only in heaven will we have our every desire satisfied and only then will we escape the sin, pain and suffering of this life. God, in His grace, will bless us with desires that far exceed what we desire now, and will be gracious in meeting those desires.
The fact is that this Word Faith gospel seems to promise what it just does not deliver (but, apparently, for a select few). We cannot escape pain in this life. We cannot escape suffering and cannot escape poverty, drudgery and discomfort. This life is difficult and sometimes seems to just drag on and on, day after endless day. So much of life and faith comes down to routine, to the day-to-day tasks that repeat themselves endlessly. Depending on a person's vocation this may be doing dishes or changing diapers, repairing brakes or changing oil, choosing songs or preparing sermons. There may be a sameness to life that just seems to never end. So much of life is consumed with drudgery--hard, monotonous, routine work.
I was talking to my mother the other day, and we were discussing various and sundry aspects of the Christian life. Mom spends a lot of time thinking about issues related to biblical womanhood and has a gift for being able to lovingly exhort and encourage other women, and young women in particular, to serve the Lord. As we spoke, she was talking about a book she had read recently and I'm quite sure she said it was The Pastor's Wife by Sabina Wurmbrand, the wife of Richard Wurmbrand who founded Voice of the Martyrs. She told how Sabina wrote about women who had been arrested for their faith and how, as they languished in prison, they so regretted ever begrudging the routine, the drudgery of daily life. As they sat in prison they would have given nearly anything to be able to scrub dishes or wash their husbands' socks. Only in retrospect did they find a new appreciation for the routine, for those small but unheralded parts of life that they had so often complained about. One of mom's challenges to young women is to embrace even the drudgery of life now and to see it as a time for joyful service. After all, a time may soon come when there is nothing you desire more and it would be terrible to have to live with regret for wasted days and bitter evenings.
What is true of life can be true of faith. It often seems like drudgery to wake up early in the morning to spend a few minutes or an hour reading the Bible and coming to the Lord in prayer. Going to church and worshiping with the Lord's people or spending time reading an edifying book can seem hard and monotonous. This Christian life can become routine and we can begin to despise the monotony of it. And this is precisely where the gospel of health and wealth appeals to people. It promises a glorious life, a carefree, fulfilling, abundant life in the here and now. But this is a mere counterfeit of Christian doctrine. It bypasses hard work and offers short-term, selfish fulfillment and calls it godly, abundant fulfillment. It is a fraud.
I've found that I need to seek to embrace the drudgery of life, thanking God for the comfort of routine and the security of sameness. And I've found that I need to embrace even the hard work of becoming a godly man, even when it can seem like monotonous drudgery. I know that the perceived monotony is only a product of my own sin and selfishness. I know that even the day-to-day task of reading the Bible and praying to the Lord should be glorious and wonderful. This is how it should and can be. Sometimes it is. Often it is not. But even in the routine of pulling my tired body out of bed to spend time with the Lord, I know that God uses these opportunities to open my eyes to His glories and to see past grumbling and fatigue to the glories of Jesus Christ. By the time I have read the Bible and poured out my heart to Him, I find that I have to repent of ever having grumbled about the beautiful routine of spending time with Him.
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Comments (20)
Thanks Tim for the exhortation. We definitely need to glorify God in everything. Even dishes...
Josh"...the word of God is not bound."--2 Timothy 2:9
Any time is a good time to bring up the dangers of the prosperity gospel.
Of course, for the most part, the only direct interaction traditional Christians have with this sort of teaching is a passing glance while channel-surfing brings them past one of those televangelist shows.
However, while I doubt that any of us are actively engaged in the prosperity theology, I think it is important for traditional Christians to keep a keen eye alert for any way that the spirit of the prosperity gospel might be seeping into our lives.
All too often I've noticed that my friends and myself included have a tendency to view God as the Almighty Helper, whose only purpose is to receive our laundry list of needs, and do his best to check off as many as he can.
In high school (I went to a private Christian school) senior year spiritual was virtually centered on the question, "Where does God want me to go with my life?" Of course, this ponderance is not exclusive to youths-- my parents, who are getting up there in age, are considering a career change, and all they can talk about is, "Gee, I've been praying, but I just don't know where God wants me to go!"
Someone a little craftier with words might find a way to say what I said a bit more concisely, but that's the first thing that popped into my head upon reading Challies post-- the tendency for traditional Christians to allow the prosperity mentality to occassionally slip into their theology.
Not to take it off-topic... there is definetely a place for the drudgery; ask Job.
God as a cosmic vending machine? What a concept!
Voddie Baucham gave a great message at the DG National Conference during the fall and he basically summed up your post Tim by saying that this (Health, Wealth, Prosperity, etc) happens when we believe in almighty man instead of Almighty God. We ask the question "How dare God not employ all His resources to do the bidding of Almighty man?"
Sadly, I think this is the state of the majority church attenders today.
And I don't want to be misunderstood either. God runs to and fro searching for ways to do me good, but it is at His good pleasure and as He sees fit. It's frightening to think of how many people have bought into this lie and the path that is has put them on.
Tim, your post dovetails perfect with a John Piper message from 1987 I listened to this morning, entitled "What Must Happen Before the Day of the Lord?" based on 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12. Piper contends that the 'religion' of the Man of Lawlessness' will most certainly be health, wealth and prosperity teaching. I'm not an eschatological maven (anymore) but this should give us pause. We are to watch our life and doctrine closely.
Also instructive is Paul's teaching earlier in 1 Thessalonians 4: "we urge you, brothers...to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one."
Tim, I know you won't mind if I put a positive spin on your word choices of 'drudgery' and 'sameness' and aspire instead to the biblical categories of 'living quietly' and 'walking properly.'
Blessings,Mark
Tim,
Normally, you'll get agreement from me on most of what you write. I think in this case, though, you didn't catch the greater truth.
Drudgery is drudgery only because it's inherently self-centered. Prayer and Bible study are drudgery when the sole point for participating in them is mostly self-serving. In fact, all aspects of the faith suffer when their ultimate reason for existing goes missing.
It's impossible to read the New Testament and not come away with the profound truth that our faith in Christ doesn't exist for us, but for others. Our faith finds its only true expression when it is used to worship God (other) and serve others. In 2nd Timothy 3:16-17, the point of knowing the Scriptures inside and out is not for selfish reasons, but that we are competent and equipped to do good works. And those good works are others-centric.
The hellish lie afflicting Western Evangelicalism is our faith exists for us. This explains one reason why we're so impotent. Once we have our ticket to heaven, what matters? That self-centered view predominates in most of Evangelicalism. It's why we've turned the faith into drudgery: no life exists in the heart of a person who fails to serve others.
Our self-centeredness undermines community in our churches. Our self-centeredness undermines evangelism. Our self-centeredness undermines prayer and Scripture reading. All these things go wanting and become drudgery because we simply fail to understand the greater purpose of our faith: to love those outside of us.
Without an others-centered servant heart, everything we do becomes drudgery. Our entire purpose for being in Christ gets lost. (This describes large chunks of the Western Church.)
Drudgery signals service gone horribly awry. To see it as a duty to muddle through the drudgery is akin to noting our jugular vein has been cut and that we should just push through it!
I would suggest that if any of us sees the essential practice of the faith as drudgery, we need to examine how we can better serve others. For an others-centered faith is the only kind worth living.
"but, apparently, for a select few"
I saw Fred Price ask his congregation, "Who of you has a 48 inch TV? He then demanded they put their hands up. A few did.He then said, "I have five of them!"
Man, what kind of nonsense is this being preached in the pulpit!
He also said he has a rolls royce, because he desired it, and God gave him the desire of His heart.
A select few is right.
I liked this post. It is drudgery at times to serve or Lord. The flesh is weak at times, bt the spirit is always willing, because it's God who works in us to will and to do.
"Drudgery is drudgery only because it's inherently self-centered."
I may not have used those words, but I attempted to make it clear that drudgery is drudgery only because of our sin. The work should be glorious...but for our sin.
I just recently walked through a very difficult time of anxiety and depression. Praise the the Lord that is was short..only a few months. There were mornings that I got up and felt the drudgery of the monotony of doing the same thing over and over, every day. As I was reading through the Psalms, a verse I had seen many times but never really noticed, ministered to me in a profound way. King David is the best example of preaching to one self instead of listening to one selff! In his darkest depressions...right in the midst of them....he would preach truth to himself. He was still depressed, but trusting in the truth to set him free."So I will ever sing praises to your name, as I perform my vows day after day." Ps.61:8
There are some good thoughts here. I wrote a post called the Mundane Deception that is somewhat along these lines.
Tim,
I was reminded of my great-grandmother who, as far as I can remember, never missed a morning reading her Bible until near the very end of her life, as her vision dimmed and her health began to fail. She beautifully demonstrated faithfulness in what could seem like drugery, although she certainly did not regard it as such. Thank you for the encouragement to persevere.
I've seen the inroads of "health and wealth" teaching into the church, up close. Over the past 25 years, it has become a ubiquitous evil in the black Christian community in America (in which I grew up). Obviously, this teaching appeals to the selfishness and covetousness that is present in our sinful hearts, but I believe its spread in the churches is evidence of the lack of true shepherds in the pulpits. No one is guarding the gate, as far as keeping out false teaching.
With this thought in mind, your post is also an encouragement to pray that God would raise up true shepherds in the churches to drive out this evil teaching.
Wyeth Duncan
Thanks Tim,I needed to hear this.
Jer
Great article! Thanks so much! I have a lot of "drudgery" facing me today. I hope to tackle it with faith and contentment!
Tim, you speak of "Word Faith" without developing any kind of analysis of scripture. Hence, anyone who finds that the gospel provides prosperity, in whatever form, for God's children and that sickness is not of God, is deemed an accessory to fraud.
Saturday, my son complained of sharp pain in his ears, a fever, and a cough. Without hesitation, I laid hands on him in accordance with Mark 16 and the pain ceased and fever left within 2 to 3 minutes. Yesterday, he didn't cough at all. Fortunately, I did not tell him just to bear through it because God was teaching him something.
It's my prayer that he will exceed anything that I ever accomplish. Accordingly, I have prayed over his schooling, his grades, and have asked God to grant him understanding, not only of the Word, but also of the natural things of this life. I have marked down the days of prayer and the days of marked increases in his grades and God's faithfulness to my prayers is undeniable.
I had to pay most of my way through college and graduate school. I intend to provide him with enough funds that he may fully engage his time in education without having to spend time earning minimum wage to pay school bills. I want my family to prosper and lead fulfilled lives and I find in the Word that God wants those things for us more than we do for ourselves. I honestly don't understand folks who say that this is some kind of theological fraud.
You might call getting out of bed early to pray and study the Word drudgery. Personally, I've never found any drudgery in it at all. I relish the "everydayness" of meeting with Him and learning of Him. It is honestly the most precious part of my day. I'm sorry that you consider it monotonous.
All this talk of drudgery reminds me of how Don Whitney begins his book on the Spiritual Disciplines. Little junior is stuck inside practicing classical guitar while his buddies are outside playing baseball. His hands don't make very beautiful music and he is not really much motivated to practice. Then an angel shows up and gives him a vision of what he'll be 15 years later if he keeps up his practice. Of course - junior's practicing took on a new life.
He then draws a similar principle with Bible reading, prayer, meditation, etc.
There will be times of drudgery but faith looks to the reward or payoff down the road - even if that payoff is primarily in eternity.
Thanks for the post.
"I honestly don't understand folks who say that this is some kind of theological fraud."
Peter, there are many who are frauds: Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, TD Jakes, and so many others. I was watching TBN the other night, and it was a scam. There's no power in these false teachers, but only loud talk in the name of Jesus. This is the "Word Faith" Tim was referring to, I would think. As I mentioned Fred Price, who is another so-called Faith preacher.
I don't think Tim was considering every single Christain who believes and prays for God to heal and prosper us as frauds.There's a balance in this.Jesus said, "Seek first the kingdom of heaven, and His righteousness, and thes things will be added."
Surely God provides for us. However, if God decides for us to go hungry, and to suffer injustice, as tens of thousands of His children have throughout the history of the Church, then these who love Him and serve, in the midst of poverty and hardness, have the greater praise from God on that Day. Although everything we do in righteousness is by his grace alone, whether we "abound or are abased", and we can never boast, nor would we want to, those who are truly saved for His glory.
And if you are blessed when you rise each and every morning, then that is a great blessing of our Savior to you. And it's wonderful his grace is upon you in such a way.I pray that that would be my blessing as well.I surely do have many mornings when I am full of joy, and look forward to serving the Lord, but there are times when I don't really feel like getting up at all, and yet I do, and by His grace i set out to live by faith, as I do when I'm full of joy.
Tim, I assure you most of your readers are perceptive enough (like donsands in #6) to realize you are addressing extreme, unbiblical Word Faith that treats God like a cosmic vending machine (a la Marc in #3); you are most emphatically *not* alluding to the very biblical, small-f faith that desires the best for our children.
And I would imagine most of your readers are busy 9 to 5 workers who love their God but must often make a concerted effort, by the grace of God, to get out of bed to commune with Him in the early hours of the morning.
Thank you, Tim, for exposing your weaknesses for the encouragement of others, and for the lack of self-righteousness you display in both your posts and your replies.
You have to be careful addressing the extremes of Word Faith teaching, because as with all heretical teachings, it has its root in scripture. The problem is that certain verses are focused on at the expense of others, and rather than a balanced, biblical view of prosperity being built up, a self centred carnal view is promoted.
I believe it is essential in this day and age, particularly for us westerners that we build up a balanced scriptural view of prosperity. Not a knee jerk reaction to the extreme word faith teachings, that ends up making the same mistake as they do but in the other direction. Invariably, the most vocal voices against the "prosperity gospel" are prosperous people themselves! I count myself as being prosperous, I give generously and tithe and still have more than enough - I thank God for his provision, because I attribute my prosperity to him, not to myself. I suspect that every single reader of this blog is "prosperous". Who do you attribute your prosperity to? If it's God, then how do you square that with blanketcriticism of "prosperity teaching"?
I'm not defending liars and frauds that masquerade as ministers of the word, some of these people make me sick to the stomach when I see what the do in the name of my saviour. But we mustn't let them force us into aknee-jerk reaction against them that forces us into the same (but opposite) unbalanced biblical view as them. There is a huge problem with poverty in this world today, this does not get solved through western Christians living in a self-imposed poverty - but perhaps a difference can be made through honest, generous and prosperous Christians who give according to their means and beyond (not to televangelists!). Tim - you're never one to shy away from tricky topics on your blog! Why not make biblical prosperity one for the future?
I was a little late reading this post and the comments. I was going to mention the value of Spiritual Disciplines by Whitney, however, I see that someone (donsands) already has. I emphatically second that. I'd also like to add Phil Ryken's book on Galatians which I am presently reading while studying the Epistle. All of Tim's readers and hearers are blessed by his post and indeed, this blog.
Hey Charles,i didn't mention Donald Whitney, Jerr M did, but his Spiritual Disciplines is a must for all Christians, I agree.
Tim,Good stuff about the word of faith crowd. In another lifetime I was really involved in that till I realized like you said “it only seemed to work for a select few”. I really like the “cosmic vending machine”. I always felt they thought Jesus was Santa Claus.I just turned 70 last month and I guess I know something about drudgery. When we grew up we were taught it was life and we needed to get over it. I wouldn’t give up my time with the Lord in the early morning for anything.Maybe someone on your list could turn me onto a blog where I could get some sort of dialog about this whole emerging church thing. I’m looking to dialog across age lines. Some of the things I read are over my head. I don’t have a college background and can’t understand some of the thinking that goes on out there!! I did start a blog in an attempt to begin a dialog but can’t seem to get any visitors comments.
Thank you.The outsider
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