Hazards to Spiritual Growth - Part 2

Continuing with the chapter from Michael Emlet in Descriptions and Prescriptions, this section begins after the previous reference to Job and his suffering:

As we've seen, it's not a bad thing to seek deliverance from intense suffering and this can be done in a godly way, unlike the Israelites and Job's wife. For example, many psalms provide a model of crying out to God with integrity and humility in the midst of troubles and grief (Psalms 10, 22, 44, 73, 77, and 88, to name a few).

At the same time, a lack of suffering may bring the temptation to simply forget that "'in him we live and move and have our being'"(Acts 17:28). Temptation toward complacency and self-reliance can certainly happen when life is relatively easy. This was part of the problem God's people experienced once they left the wilderness and entered the Promised Land. Their dependence on him waned in the midst of material blessing (Deuteronomy 8:10014; Judges 2:10-12). You see that same pattern in David (2 Samuel 12:7-9) and Solomon (1 Kings 10-11).

We are prone to wander from God when life is hard and when life is easy.

More tomorrow.