by E. D. Burns
I first started ministering among Buddhist-background people in 2002, and then later with karmic-background believers. As the ministry opportunities God gave me took me around the world to serve in very diverse contexts from remote to urban, animistic to atheistic, and polytheistic to monotheistic, I noticed that local Christians in all these contexts struggled to maintain God’s blessing in their lives (as they perceived it) and to avoid adversity.
Moreover, I realized I was just like them. In our own ways, we all could be anxious or fearful of displeasing the Lord and then learning the hard way. But this was not merely a healthy fear of falling into grievous sin and suffering obviously direct consequences (e.g., committing adultery and losing your marriage). This was an unsettling fear of not knowing enough, being enough, or doing enough to warrant and maintain God’s temporal blessings.
Sometimes this looks like going on a short-term missions trip, tithing more generously, heading up a ministry in church, or praising more passionately with all our heart. And when we have done enough to feel God’s presence, we begin to look for signs of God’s favor and blessing. When something good comes along, we smile and say, “God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.”
We can observe this tendency in our fear of making decisions without knowing God’s perfect will or hearing God’s leading. So, we pray and pray, wait and wait, and many of us are paralyzed with fear of missing out on God’s best for us. After all, you only live once. Don’t settle for second best. So, what is the answer? Not power. We want peace. Inner peace. We want the uneasy feelings to go away so we can be still and know that he is God. We want to know that he likes us again.
But then, something unforeseen happens. Our fears are realized. Maybe your fiancé cheated on you and broke your heart. Maybe you had your third miscarriage. Maybe you lost your job, again. Maybe it’s cancer. That bogeyman in our proverbial closet has come out to torment us. What were potential threats yesterday are present terrors today.
Our dreams prove fake while our nightmares prove real. It must be that God’s blessings are being withdrawn because he needs to teach us a lesson. We should have paid better attention the first time. Or maybe we were never that special to him in the first place. What is so wrong with us that we just can’t do enough to get back under his umbrella of protection?
If we could just work up enough believing faith, then we could pray successfully for healing. Or, if we could just unite the church with enough faith-filled prayer (with no one doubting in their hearts), align lockstep with God’s perfect plans, then we could bind the evil spirits that are wreaking havoc in our lives. If we could just map their strongholds, we could rebuke the demons so that God’s blessings could be released again.
Maybe if we gave a widow’s mite, then God might be pleased enough to help us pay our rent. It’s probably our lack of faith that has caused this whole mess. If we can follow the promptings of his Spirit, hear Jesus calling, let go and let God, obey God’s chain of command, and just have faith, then we can tip the scales in our favor and secure God’s promises.
God has blessings in heaven ready to be loosed. If we would only believe with true faith, then they could be ours. If . . . then, if . . . then. What is that? That’s karma. It’s a contractual religion. A transactional religion. This is a not a secure relationship with the faithful covenant-keeping God of the Bible. No. This is a shallow relationship with a fickle contract-making genie of our own fallen human experience.
We subconsciously (and sometimes even consciously) project upon God how we have perceived the authorities in our life—that imperfect father who wounded our little hearts, that irritable supervisor who was impossible to keep happy, that indulgent grandfather who was too frail to do much to help us, or that narcissistic pastor whose whole ministry seemed to use people until they got in his way. This is all a Christian version of karma.
Karmic Christianity is the common mode of interpreting God’s mysterious providences of blessing and discipline through contractual stipulations and transactional rituals. It’s a reap-what-you-sow, tit-for-tat religion of retribution. If we think, feel, or do this enough, then God will do that. But if you don’t, then count your blessings because there won’t be any more till you’re good enough again.
Though this is the normal Christian experience for many of us, it doesn’t need to be this way. There is gospel hope for the struggler. You can know the peace of God and rest in the harbor of his sovereign grace. You can be still and know that he is God. Peace. Safety. Rest. Assurance.
The stipulations of the law covenant promise blessing, only for perfect, perpetual, and personal obedience. But Jesus is the better Adam and the better Israel who fulfilled the law’s demand for obedience and penalty for disobedience. Jesus joyfully became a servant to those who trust in him. He is their righteousness.
For those united with Christ through faith alone, he has secured all the promises of God and their eternal blessings. So may you have a glad-hearted contentment in God that laughs at the days to come. May you know that if you are in Christ, all is well. If God is for us, who or what can be against us? Fear not. God loves you.
This essay was excerpted from E. D. Burns’s book, Karmic Christianity: Finding Peace by Faith Alone, published by William Carey Press. You can use the discount code KARMIC25 to receive 25% off the paperback and ebook versions. An audiobook version is also available on Audible and Apple Books.
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E. D. Burns has been a long-term missionary in the Middle East, East Asia, Alaska, and currently SE Asia. He serves on faculty at Asia Biblical Theological Seminary. As a linguist and ordained minister, Burns develops theological resources and trains indigenous pastors and missionaries to the least reached.
