Part 1 of the “God Builds Men” series
If you’re reading this at 2 AM, wondering why your life feels like it’s falling apart while everyone else seems to have their stuff together, this one’s for you.
Maybe you’re 19 and watching your friends get into their dream schools while you got rejected. Maybe you’re 23 and still living at home while your buddy just bought a house. Or maybe you’re 16, and your parents are going through a divorce while your friend’s family looks perfect on Instagram.
I’ve been there. That pit in your stomach asks the same question: “Does God even like me?”
The Lie That’s Wrecking Everything
There’s a lie spreading through our generation that’s absolutely destroying young men’s faith. It sounds spiritual. It feels true. But it’s poison.
The lie goes like this:
When things go well → God loves you and approves of your life
When things go badly → God is angry with you or has abandoned you
I’ve watched this thinking wreck more young men than I can count. They chase success, thinking it proves God’s blessing. Then, when life gets hard (and it always does), they assume they’re cursed.
Both sides are completely wrong.
Why This Lie Is So Dangerous
This thinking turns your relationship with God into a performance review. Good circumstances = good grade. Bad circumstances = failing grade.
But check this out. Job was called “blameless and upright” by God himself. Then he lost everything: wealth, children, and health in a single day. Job’s friends made the same mistake our generation makes: they assumed his suffering meant God was punishing him for secret sins.
Job proved them wrong. There’s no direct line between your righteousness and your circumstances, or between your wickedness and your struggles.
God’s love for you isn’t measured by your bank account, your relationship status, or how smoothly your plans are going.
The Early Church Proves This
Want to address this misleading lie? Let’s look at the early Christian church.
They grew from about 1,000 believers in 40 A.D. to 6 million by 300 A.D., roughly 10% of the entire Roman Empire. That’s explosive growth at about 3.4% per year.
And they did it while getting thrown to lions.
Christians were burned alive, crucified, and blamed for natural disasters during intense persecution periods under emperors like Nero, Decius, and Diocletian. If God’s favor were measured by comfortable circumstances, these would be the most “cursed” people in history.
Instead, they were building the kingdom of God while suffering for it.
The early church historian Tertullian wrote, “semen est sanguis Christianorum,” “the blood of Christians is seed.” Their suffering didn’t stop the gospel. It spread it.
Every Hero in Scripture Faced This
Look at every man in the Bible who actually mattered:
Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness before God used him to lead a nation. He went from being the prince of Egypt to being a nobody shepherd for four decades. Wasted time? No. Preparation time.
David fought lions and bears as a teenager, then spent years on the run from King Saul. He was anointed as king but lived like a fugitive. God wasn’t punishing him. God was building him.
Paul was blinded and broken on the road to Damascus before becoming the greatest missionary in history. His resume looked like a disaster before God used him to change the world.
Even Jesus, who was perfect in every way, was called “a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.”
None of these men got their strength from comfortable lives. They got it from being forged in seasons when they had no choice but to depend on God and push through, even when everything in them wanted to quit.
The Truth That Changes Everything
Both material success and material struggle can be part of God’s plan for your life.
Joseph experienced being both a favored son and a slave, then the second-in-command of Egypt. David was anointed king, then became a fugitive, then actually became king. Paul had ministry success AND constant persecution.
The common thread wasn’t their circumstances. It was their faithfulness through whatever God allowed.
Your circumstances don’t determine God’s opinion of you. Your faithfulness in whatever circumstances you’re in does.
What This Means for You Right Now
If you’re in a season where nothing seems to be working out, where the weight feels heavy, and the way forward is unclear, take heart.
God isn’t punishing you. He might be building you.
The same God who spent 40 years in the wilderness preparing Moses to lead a nation might be using your current struggles to prepare you for something you can’t even imagine yet.
Those early Christians didn’t see persecution as evidence that God hated them. They saw it as the price of being part of something eternal, something that mattered more than their temporary comfort.
The most dangerous men in history for the kingdom of darkness weren’t those who lived easy lives. They were those who learned to stand unshakeable regardless of their circumstances.
What’s Next?
This is just the beginning. If God isn’t building you through easy circumstances, then how does He actually build you? And what is He building you into?
In my next post, I’ll show you exactly how God forges unbreakable men and why the process is so much better than you think.
Part 2: “How God Builds Unbreakable Men“
Part of the “God Builds Men” series.
Citations:
- Job 1:1, 1:8: Job was called “blameless and upright” by God
- Acts 7:23, 7:30: Moses’ 40 years in Midian before returning to Egypt
- 1 Samuel 17:34-37: David’s battles with lions and bears as preparation
- Acts 9:3-9: Paul’s conversion and blindness experience
- Isaiah 53:3: Jesus as “man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.”
- Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity: Early church growth statistics
- Tertullian’s Apologeticus: “semen est sanguis Christianorum.“
