“Christianity Doesn’t Work For Me!”

“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord.” — Isaiah 55:8

I was listening to a young woman struggling in her faith and sharing all the trauma and drama in her life. She was trying to understand why situations in her life continue to go wrong. She shared with me all that she has done; read her Bible, pray, go to church, do things the right way, etc. Yet, the circumstances didn’t change. In exasperation, as I have heard many times before, she ended with, “Christianity doesn’t work for me!”

I responded, “Good! It is not supposed to.”

What? What could I possibly mean by that? I mean Christianity is not supposed to work for you!

We live in a world that is all about us. In fact, many of the churches you can attend in America are mostly concerned with practical advice on how to live your life. I’ve presented in churches that would specifically ask me to end my sermon with practical steps for people to apply. I always refuse. While there are practical things we can learn from the Bible, there is nothing practical about being a partaker of the divine nature. (2 Peter 1:3-4)

Many have fallen back into the old covenant view of blessing and cursing. Certainly in the Old Testament the relationship God had with man was one of blessing and cursing. If you follow the law, God will bless you in the world. Break the law and God will curse you.

We often embrace this idea today and think: If I do everything right, then my life will be perfect, my spouse and kids will be perfect… finances, job, etc. …all will be perfect.

This is not Biblical. Many who have walked closely with God were imprisoned, stoned, persecuted, crucified, fed to wild animals, and put to death in unimaginable ways. They were poor, slaves, outcasts and from all walks of life. Not because they were doing things wrong. Rather, because Christianity didn’t work for them, it worked for Him. Because the world is not God’s kingdom.

Jesus said speaking of Christians, “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” (John 17:15-16)

Christianity is all about Jesus and not about us. It is all about His kingdom and not this world.

Paul provides one of the craziest passages in the Bible in 1 Corinthians 7:20-22, “Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called. Were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it; but if you can be made free, rather use it. For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ’s slave.”

What ongoing circumstance could be worse than slavery? Yet, we are told not to be concerned even about that circumstance. Your circumstances in the world are irrelevant from an eternal perspective. Rather it is the circumstances of your spiritual life that matter most to God.

That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care about what you are going through. He cares deeply. We are to pray without ceasing. Bring our circumstances, troubles, worries and burdens to Him. Yet, His plan is not to work everything out to give you a heaven on earth. His plan is to grow you in His grace and knowledge for the Heaven that is to come.

Christianity is not supposed to work for you in this world. The work is done! It was finished in Christ. We were created to worship our Lord. We were created to grow in His grace and knowledge. We were adopted to join Him in the perfection of the age to come.

God does not work for us! We were created for Him. The moment we put a litmus test on Christianity by how God works for us, we have lost all perspective on who God is and who we were created to be.

Certainly God blesses those who walk with Him. Always spiritually, sometimes physically. However, those blessings are just as true and real in a vacation house on the beach as they are in a prison. They do not waver from the mansion to the shack. They are not changed by prosperity nor by poverty nor by any other circumstance.

Christianity only works when we understand who God is and who we are called to be in Him. It only finds life when we allow the Living Lord to live through us. It only truly has hope when all our hope is placed in Him rather than the next circumstance in our life. It reminds me to examine myself everyday as to whether my eyes are focused on the world or on He who has overcome the world.

Where is your focus today?

© 2025 Warren Martin. All rights Reserved.