The Scribe's Portion

Why Do Evil People Prosper & Faithful People Suffer?

January 30, 2018 16 Comments

Sometimes our faithfulness to God will be a cause for suffering. Not all sickness and failures are symptoms of sin. And not all success is a result of faithful devotion to God.

If you have ever wondered why unbelievers who want nothing to do with God always seem to prosper while the most faithful suffer, you are not alone. I believe many Christians have asked this sometime in their lives. And we are in good company since Jeremiah, Job, and Asaph expressed the same thought.

Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive?” (Jeremiah 12:1b, ESV)

“Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power? Their offspring are established in their presence, and their descendants before their eyes.Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them.Their bull breeds without fail; their cow calves and does not miscarry.They send out their little boys like a flock, and their children dance.They sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe. They spend their days in prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol.” (Job 21:7-13, ESV)

“For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” (Psalm 73:3, ESV)

What I Believed

I’ve always had a hard time with math. I was a good student in school; got mostly As in every subject except math. I did my very best- spent hours trying to understand and figure out numbers and equations that seemed more Greek than math. Somehow, I did good enough on tests and assignments to earn Cs and sometimes Bs. However, when I got to Pre-Calculus in High School, math became a nightmare. I would get home from school, go straight into my room, took out my math homework, and spent hours frustratingly plugging and chugging numbers and failing. I always ended up in tears, frustrated, and mad. You see, school was important to me, and if I couldn’t do well in math, I felt like a complete failure even if my other classes went well. I absolutely detested math.

But there was one thing I could not understand. I prayed and prayed to do well on my math tests but I felt God ignored me. I saw other students who hated God do well without effort. And I did not understand how they, who did not live for God could do so well and I who prayed, devoted myself to God, and tried my best could fail math so miserably. In my 16-year-old mind, I was convinced that it wasn’t fair. How could unbelievers succeed, while believers failed?

What God Taught Me

I now understand that God has given unique abilities and talents to every person. And math was definitely not an ability of mine. What I had not understood then, is that God doesn’t owe us anything even when we are faithfully devoted to Him. We have the propensity to think that God must reward our devotion. That if we pray 5 hours a day, read the Bible, go to church, tithe, and love others, that God MUST give us cars, houses, money, vacations, and make all our dreams come true. When plans don’t go as planned, we get angry and wonder why God didn’t give us success. Even if our desires are not materialistic, God can choose not to give us what we want, because He is sovereign. Our faithfulness to God does not mean that we will get everything we want or that our plans will succeed.

God Provides

I want to emphasize, that God does provide for our needs. If we seek Him genuinely with our whole hearts, He is good to give us what we need. God will sometimes pamper us by giving us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4). He sees and tests our hearts and gives according to what is in them. So if your heart is riddled with greed God will not give you that Ferrari you want. However, what God gives is not a reward for our devotion to Him- our reward is in Heaven. And that alone is more than sufficient!

[bctt tweet=”God’s gifts to us are not rewards for our faithfulness. Heaven is our eternal reward! ” username=”TheScribe_Blog”]

Prosperity and Success

We also have to see what “prosperity” or “success” mean to God. When we think about someone becoming prosperous or successful, we have the tendency to think: career, work, finances, house, car, social accomplishment, awards, and recognition. However appealing these may sound, they are just material possessions. When we die, we die with everything we own and accomplished. And in 100 years from now, no one will remember us. Doesn’t sound very grand anymore does it?

God does promise eternal life for those who choose to follow Him in obedience and faithfulness. That is one prize no one should want to miss! Running this race of life without losing the faith, is success! (2 Timothy 4:7). If we seek a reward, let it be the reward of an incorruptible crown! (1 Corinthians 9:25).

We will suffer sickness, let downs, failures, persecution, and death in this life. Your faithfulness will not exempt you from it. But God does promise that He will never leave us. He will go into the waters and the fire with us! (Isaiah 43:2).

There are many reasons why God allows His faithful children to suffer persecution, sickness, failures, and trials. I will discuss just 4 of these that many Christians experience.

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1. Persecuted to Glorify God

Christians are persecuted in over 50 countries worldwide. That is, 75% of the world population lives in persecuted countries according to The Pew Research Center. Thousands of faithful Christians are imprisoned, tortured and killed for their love of Christ daily. And many ask, if God is so good why would He allow His own followers to suffer like this? God is not capable of evil, but humans are. The suffering of these Christians glorifies God as the ultimate sacrifice for His Kingdom. In fact, dying for our faith in Christ is an honor, as many persecuted Christians will tell you. Sometimes our faithfulness to Abba will be a cause for suffering. And not all suffering is punishment for sin.

[bctt tweet=”Sometimes our faithfulness will be a cause for suffering. ” username=”TheScribe_Blog”]

2. Increase Our Faith

You are very devoted to God, faithful to the end, in fact, your spiritual life is the best it had ever been and then suddenly a tragic accident in your family occurs. From a human perspective, it doesn’t make sense. But then it makes perfect sense. God wants to take you further in your faith. He wants to teach you to depend on Him 150%. He wants to hold you through the hardship, be a loving Father, and draw you closer to Him. Sometimes the answer to our prayers come in the form of trials. And your faith cannot grow stronger without being tried

Other times, God can allow sickness into your life to keep you on His path. Paul suffered from a chronic illness that God allowed so he wouldn’t become prideful (2 Corinthians 12). I repeat, not all sickness is punishment for sin, sometimes, it’s exactly what we need.

3. The Enemy is Mad

Remember Job? He was the most righteous man of his time. The Lord referred to him as “blameless” and “upright who fears God and shuns evil” (Job 1:8). He was the most faithful man, no one was like him. But the enemy wanted to break him; corrupt him.One day he went up to God to accuse him. So God allowed the enemy to touch Job, except his life. The enemy took everything away from him: his children, his riches, even his health. His wife and friends weren’t much help, they were used by the enemy. If you have ever read the Book of Job, you’ll remember that Job suffered faithfully. Though he did not understand why everything was taken from him, he remained faithful until God restored him. If you’re living faithfully for God and suddenly things start going haywire, the enemy may be mad. Because he lost his only chance at eternal life, he wants to corrupt and drag as many souls as possible into hell with him if; he can’t be in heaven, then no one else can.

4. God is Preparing You for Something Better

They fired you from your job. You did your best. You were a good testimony to your coworkers, prayed for them, witnessed to them. Your boss was happy with your work. It was a solid job but they fired you. It doesn’t seem to make sense. You had your dream job, you were happy and grateful. God is preparing you for something better. Job lost everything, but God restored him by giving him more than what he previously possessed. Don’t ever doubt that if God takes something away, he will replace it with something better. Maybe God is calling you for a different kind of work that will glorify Him and increase His kingdom. Who knows? What may seem like a lost and a failure, maybe your training for God’s work.

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Success Does Not Always Equal Righteousness

The flipside of what we just discussed is also true. Just because everything is going fine in your life does not mean that you’re right with God. If you’ve been a Christian for a while and you haven’t encountered any test or trial, you should be worried! Because the enemy will not bother those who are deceived. The enemy can allow you to have success as long as you believe that you’re right with God when you’re not. Beware! Steer away from the mentality that because you prosper you must be doing Christianity right-this kind of thinking produces self-righteousness, pride, and leads to judgment and criticism of others. Success does not always equal faithful devotion to God.

[bctt tweet=”The enemy can allow you to have success as long as you believe that you’re right with God when you’re not.” username=”TheScribe_Blog”]

The True Heart of the Faithful

If we walk with a genuine heart for the Lord, He is always faithful to give us according to our hearts. God does not give to each equally, but as He pleases (Matthew 25:14-30). But beware that to whom much is given, much is required (Luke 12:48). Like the parable mentioned above of the talents, if God has blessed you with much, He will require much from you. So the amount of success or failure is not a measure of our faith and devotion but the picture of the sovereignty of God.

If a brother is suffering, do not become like Job’s friends who instead of helping him, beat him more. Suffering is not always a punishment for sin. And prosperity does not always mean complete faithfulness.

Let us look toward heaven for our reward-this world and all it has to offer is fleeting. But eternal life is the ultimate prize.

Why Do Evil People Prosper and Faithful People Suffer?

 

Evelyn Fonseca

Christian millennial, writer, editor, introvert, lover of languages, and full-time bibliophile. My mission is to tell the whole world about the love of Christ and that apart from Him there is no hope.

16 Comments

  1. Reply

    Michael

    September 30, 2022

    The person who wrote this article grew up wealthy. You can tell

    • Reply

      Evelyn Fonseca

      October 8, 2022

      I’m not sure if you mean spiritually wealthy or physically wealthy. But if you meant spiritually-wise you are correct. I was blessed to have been raised by a mother who taught me about Christ and lived what she preached. I grew up in the church surrounded by people who love the Lord, so yes, I had a rich upbringing. But if you meant physically wealthy then your assessment is incorrect. I’m the daughter of poor Mexican immigrants who owned nothing when they came to the US but who worked very hard to make sure my brothers and I lacked nothing. Physical wealth is not something I’m acquainted with. And just out of curiosity, what part of my article gave you the impression that I grew up wealthy?

  2. Reply

    Stan Bednarz

    March 1, 2022

    I have a daughter who I just found out was raped by a former son in-law. Because it happened after she accepted Christ, she’s had a hard time accepting somehow God cared for her when he didn’t seem to answer her prayers for protection. She struggles every day, feeling like I abandoned her as a father, because I didn’t know, and that the God she no longer believes in abandoned her. She’s now forsaken any ties to the scriptures and belief that God is in control.

    Some of the verses touch on this issue, but there are very few that explain to a true believer who faced evil should be able find comfort in God’s grace. It was different for my wife and I because we were saved after we experienced evil done to us firsthand.

    It’s easy to say, okay, be mindful that innocent people suffer for Christ’s sake and are persecuted and or tortured until death and that we shouldn’t expect we deserve no greater blessing than heaven. But it’s still different when you discover you’ve had a daughter who trusted scripture that implied God could and would keep her.

    For me, I know he keeps and protects our inner self in the eye of storm. Innocently tortured or imprisoned as a Christian to us right thinking souls should be a badge of honor. But its still difficult to go back into the mind of a little girl who was raped and then believed that she was a sinner and spoiled fruit, unable tell anyone.

    I can only give her examples of girls and women tortured and raped whose faith survived and then thrived. If u can give your best examples for this little girl, my daughter who is now a broken woman who blames me and God, please by all means, feel free to lend it to me.

    • Reply

      Evelyn Fonseca

      March 2, 2022

      Stan,

      My heart breaks to hear what happened to your daughter. No girl or woman or anyone should have to experience something this horrible. My heart goes out to your daughter and your family, this grieves me in the spirit.

      I have never been through something like this so I will not pretend to understand the magnitude of your daughter’s pain and brokenness. Even other girls and women who have experienced rape could never fully understand the way your daughter feels because we are all different and cope with suffering differently. Suffering affects each one of us very differently.

      I cannot answer why God allowed this to happen to your daughter, no one can. There is so much about God that cannot be understood by human logic but I can say with absolute certainty that He has a plan and a purpose for your daughter. He can turn this horrible experience into something good and for His glory. He can turn her suffering into joy and heal her completely. I know this may sound difficult to believe and downright cruel to some but He has done it for other girls and women victims of rape and He can do it for your daughter.

      From your comment, I gather that your daughter was a young girl when she was raped and is now a woman, so she has been living with the pain and brokenness for years. And it will undoubtedly take time for her to be healed from such a traumatic past. She is in a vulnerable state making it easy for her to believe the lies of the enemy, that God doesn’t care for her, that she is now soiled and impure, that God doesn’t exist, and many more. And nothing you say or do can change the way she feels toward you as her father, who she thinks failed her, and toward a God she believes did not protect her. You are hurting deeply and feel helpless to help her.

      In situations like this, the only thing we can do is put her in God’s hands. Pray, intercede for your daughter. You cannot heal her, you cannot take away her pain, her suffering, her destructive thoughts, but God can. Now I know that I have never found myself in this situation and you may be thinking that it’s easy for me to say this. But no matter how big the trial nor how painful the test there is no pit deeper that the love of God isn’t deeper still and this is true in every situation, big or small.

      Your daughter needs to feel the awesome, powerful and redeeming love of God in her life. God’s love heals all wounds and breaks down strongholds. You need to pray that God would liberate her from the lies of the enemy, that He would heal her heart, renew her mind, restore her joy, envelop her in His redeeming love, and comfort her with His presence. As difficult as it might be to leave her in God’s hands (because as humans we want to fix it in our own strength and in our own way) only He can do the healing perfectly and completely. This is also a test for you, as a father who is also hurting, to learn to depend on God completely and to surrender your daughter to Him. But pray for her, if you have to do it 20 times a day, then pray 20 times, as much as you need to. As much as you love your daughter, God loves her more. Prayer and patience are what is needed here. And it will continue to be painful, the healing process takes time, years even but you must hold unto God’s promises and His character. What happens to us and how we feel doesn’t change who God is, and He is good, He is faithful, He is love, and He never ever forsakes.

      Listen to what the Scripture says:

      “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:37-39)

      “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10)

      “You who have shown me many troubles and distresses will revive me again, and will bring me up again from the depths of the earth.” (Psalms 71:20)

      “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” (Psalms 147:3)

      “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalms 34:18)

      “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.” (Isaiah 61:1-3)

      I also would like to recommend a book called, “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire” by Jim Cymbala, pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Here you will find stories about the power of God through prayer. Jim gives many testimonies about people who went through horrible experiences and how God healed, restored, and saved them. Jim also went through a very difficult trial with his daughter and he tells how God worked in her life.

      I am praying for your daughter and your family because this affects not only her but everyone who loves her. I pray that God would comfort you and your family through this trial and that He would make His presence felt in your lives and that you may see His glory and redemptive love. Keep the faith!

      In Christ,
      Evelyn

  3. Reply

    Hulalu

    January 8, 2022

    Matthew 4:8

    8Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 10Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. 11Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

    Earth is the devil’s playground and all the fore mentioned kingdoms are his for a short time. Once Jesus Christ returns, it will be His! 🙏🙏🙏

  4. Reply

    Michele Kelsey

    July 7, 2021

    Great job on a tough subject. Today, I was having one of those days…Well, this week has really been one of those weeks when you wonder what you did to deserve this! I love how you explained it all in real words that people need to hear! Thanks for sharing! Today, as I was working on my Bible study post for my website, https://sharinglifeandlove.com/, I just told myself that God has a reason for everything, even if we don’t see that reason until we get to heaven one day! It really encouraged me to turn my attitude around!! 🙂 Keep up the awesome work. I can’t wait to read more! Thanks!! Michele Kelsey

    • Reply

      Evelyn Fonseca

      July 7, 2021

      Thank you so much Michele for your words of encouragement to keep writing! I’m very happy to hear that you were also encouraged by the post, praise God! Thanks for sharing and I’ll check out your blog!

  5. Reply

    Mr. K

    January 15, 2020

    This was very deep and right on time, Evelyn. I’ve been a believer for quite some time but have had this thought run through my mind here and there. “Suffering is not always a punishment for sin. And prosperity does not always mean complete faithfulness” Really hit home for me!

  6. Reply

    Ibe Tochukwu

    January 12, 2020

    Yeah that’s correct. How are you doing?

  7. Reply

    Daily gospel vibe

    May 29, 2018

    Awesome article.. I think why Christians don’t prosper is because there are too lazy to apply God’s word for prosperity and they fall victim of spending more than they can earn.

    Most of the reasons why Christians don’t prosper are due to our ignorance and lack of divine knowledge.

    • Reply

      Evelyn Fonseca

      May 29, 2018

      I agree that being bad stewards with God’s provisions will definitely hinder us from moving forward.

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