Holy and Happy

After these faithful deeds, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and entered Judah. He laid siege to the fortified cities and intended to break into them. - 2 Chronicles 32:1

Hey, wait a minute, did I miss something here? Does it really say that after Hezekiah showed his faithfulness to the Lord, he was attacked? That just doesn't sound right to my American, western sensibilities. I thought that my faithfulness and obedience guaranteed God's blessing! I thought that if I did everything right and obeyed in all ways, then nothing bad would happen.

Okay, I didn't really think that, but many do.

While the message may be popular (that God follows up faithfulness and obedience with external security and blessing), it lacks biblical support. God exists for His glory. His goal is to make us holy, not always happy. Our faithfulness simply indicates our strength in Him and often our preparedness for a greater test that may soon follow.

Our greatest blessing is often in our greatest shining that occurs out of our greatest testing for His greatest glory. Does that "feel" messed up? Yeah, but the faithful get it.

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. - C. S. Lewis