Should the devout expect to have better lives in this world than non-believers?

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Tommy999

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Please help me with an internal debate I’ve had with myself over the years.

While it is the goal of all Christians to reach heaven and help others do the same, I am wondering if it is logical and reasonable to expect a person who lives by the tenets of the faith to benefit in this world, as well?

I am not a proponent of the “prosperity gospel” nor do I speak of just material wealth. I am talking about whether a person who lives a devout life is better off than the same person would be if they didn’t do so.

Part of me says “Yes”, they should and here’s why. For example, a person who obeys the Ten Commandments won’t have to worry about getting killed by a jealous spouse of his lover, or have to be thrown in jail for stealing a car. If said person “does everything as unto the Lord” at work, he should get good job performance reviews. If he “loves his neighbor as himself”, he should be able to get along with people and have friends.

However, part of me also says, “No”. I am reminded that our infinitely good and gracious Lord suffered an unjust and extremely painful passion for our sins. Also, the Apostle Paul and other Christian martyrs like St Peter and many Early Church Fathers made tremendous personal sacrifices in this world in order to spread the Gospel.

I am also reminded that the “rain falls on the just and the unjust alike” and how in my own life, there has been a combination of fortunate and unfortunate events occur, including the death of a dear and holy older brother of mine who was killed by another driver in a car accident when I was a pre-teen.

Just curious what other people think about this topic.

One of the reasons I ask is that I recently started volunteering at a food pantry and see a majority of poor clients, most of whom do not profess any faith. I gladly serve them anyway and pray their circumstances improve in the future and am glad to be of service to them, especially the mothers with children whose father is not in the picture.
 
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Tommy999 said:
While it is the goal of all Christians to reach heaven and help others do the same, I am wondering if it is logical and reasonable to expect a person who lives by the tenets of the faith to benefit in this world, as well?
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Suffering, pain, death, loss, challenges come to all. To those who have great faith they are the result of God’s active or passive will for us and the circumstances that allow us to grow in deeper union with Him. This is a great benefit in dealing with hard circumstances. A believer can remain in joy even in the midst of great suffering. To those without faith these appear as crushing defeats. These still contain grace and sometimes, in these dark periods, a spark of grace appears to show one the way to faith.
 
I guess it depends on what you mean by better lives. More money, good jobs, a multitude of well behaved children? If you notice the lives of those who suffer and do so with holiness are incredibly happy. But not in the world’s terms.
 
Sufferings, yes. We are told to expect those. Everyone suffers in some way. However, if you live by God’s law and strive to trust Him and grow close to Him, you have a deep peace and joy, a deep sense of security that God is in charge and that His will is for our good. “All things work together for good for those who love God.”
 
Tommy999 said:
While it is the goal of all Christians to reach heaven and help others do the same, I am wondering if it is logical and reasonable to expect a person who lives by the tenets of the faith to benefit in this world, as well?
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No. Some believers will have good lives in this world and some won’t. Many will have lives with ups and downs, just like non-believers.

Also, some believers will suffer things that others would see as hardships, but the believing person will have a different mindset about the hardship and see it as less hardship, or no hardship, or having a silver lining in that he can offer the hardship up to save souls, etc.

We really shouldn’t have expectations. Everything is in God’s hands.
We just do our best to live our lives in the place we’ve been put and deal with what we have to deal with.
 
Those who have faith and obey the commandments will benefit in many ways here on earth. The payoff isn’t only in heaven.
 
Just to add on, this is where I find the examples of the saints to be very helpful.
Some saints were poor, some were middle-class, some were wealthy.
Some of the wealthy ones gave away all their money. Some lost all their money. Some stayed rich though they practiced personal charity and austerity.
Some had generally happy family lives, some had family dysfunction or lost one or both parents at a young age, some had an extreme amount of dysfunction.
Some had a nice happy life and then tragedy struck and their spouse and child suddenly died or something like that.
Some had a nice happy life and then suddenly got martyred for their faith.
Some had pretty happy lives right up to the natural end of their life, although they experienced the things we all suffer like losing loved ones.
Some had chronic pain, illness, deformity and others were in good shape and lived to a very advanced age.
Some died from whatever they were doing to be saints (like nursing the sick, traveling to mission countries, even fasting) and some did not.
Whatever your situation is, you can find a saint who went through something similar. Literally everybody in every situation can be holy.
 
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I have a better life in this world because I have God as my father and Jesus my saviour and our Blessed Mother as my mother. I did not have them with me every day when I did not believe. I did not have their guidance, their strength, their help, their consolation. Struggles and trouble come to everyone but I have a beautiful heavenly family to walk with me and carry me when I cannot go further.
 
Christians do not expect that. However, among their sufferings they can expect to have inner peace, which this world cannot give.
 
PennyinCanada said:
I have a better life in this world because I have God as my father and Jesus my saviour and our Blessed Mother as my mother.
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Amen to that, Penny. I would be lost without Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the saints. There are many days when I literally have no one else. But that’s okay because Jesus is all I need. He gave me the gift of his mother, foster father and heavenly friends to help me also. I rarely feel alone because all of them are with me.

I can do all things through God who strengthens me, and only through Him.
To God be the Glory!

If I did not have God I shudder to think what I would have instead, or be looking for.
Probably alcohol, or some potentially haywire relationship, or other things I don’t need since I have God.
 
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It’s my firm belief that the closer we come to God the more suffering and tribulations we will have to endure. Just look at the lives of saints, even still the reward waiting for us in heaven will be far greater than these sufferings.
 
We Christians were given promises. The promise that we would suffer is one of them. Suffering unites us to Christ.
 
All of us have our own suffering.

But the devout have a context, a reason for their suffering that allows them to accept it, or even embrace it, in a way that non-believers don’t have.

So while the devout and non-believers may each have similar trials in life-- they have much different tools with which to deal with them. The devout don’t expect this world to be anything but “a vale of tears”, so when adversity comes, they know, “Yeah, even our Master had to deal with adversity, so this is just my cross to bear patiently.” But non-believers are more likely to be crushed by their adversity, or deal with it with drugs or alcoholism, or whatever-- and then their adversity grows exponentially as the way they choose to deal with it brings on problems of its own.
 
Suffering comes to all, but it seems it comes particularly to those who are devout. So while the devout may have more ease in certain areas, as they’re obeying the law, trust me, the world will find other ways to make them hurt.

On the other side of the same coin, we should rejoice in these sufferings, as they give us a chance to grow in holiness and virtue and shrink the distance between us and Our Lord. So while we may have objectively more objective sufferings, provided we take them in stride in the proper manner—not just as a Stoic ignoring it, but actively rejoicing in it—we will have a better life because of the holy effects of our afflictions.
In short, advancement of material benefit for the devout is rare, but not unheard of, while suffering is guaranteed for the faithful. And if we’re not suffering, that may be a bad sign!

EDIT: Good quote I read once: “The devil don’t shoot at decoys.” If you’re suffering, it’s because you’re on his radar, and he’s looking for the ruin of you and those you would bless.
 
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I have to say that this question is excellent and one that deserves some attention from the Church family.

I think a lot of us who come from Evangelical backgrounds, and also some Catholics, use a modern marketing approach to reach out to non-churched people. We extol the benefits of becoming a Christian and getting involved with the Church, and we list the ways our lives will be better.

And that’s good, because there are many benefits to following Christ and as others have spelled out in this thread, our lives are better, even if we have to endure suffering.

But we certainly don’t present the suffering, poverty, frustration, lost love, children who go the wrong way, etc.!

This thread is a reminder that we need to be honest and tell people that Christianity is not a ticket to The Great Life, at least here on this earth. And we need to remind ourselves, too!

Thanks to the OP!
 
Yes, this.

However, I feel like the more faithfully I keep my eyes on Jesus, the more strength I have to deal with adversity, along with patience and compassion.

When I take my eyes off Him, and dwell too much in my own pains, I collapse more easily, and spiral downward into fear, which then adds more suffering to the original thing that hurt me.
 
In becoming holy, we should expect the fruits of the Spirit:
charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity

But not temporal goods.
 
Eh, there’s nothing wrong with expecting God to help us get what we need from a “temporal goods” perspective.

The key is what we need…what HE thinks we need.
Not what WE think we need.

Temporal goods can also be a lesson or a cross and God can give them to someone for that purpose.
 
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