But... if I were really saved, wouldn’t my circumstances be better?
God says…
From the Jews five times I [Paul] received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils of the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—beside the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.
The Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians
Chapter 11, Verses 24-28
That means…
It’s easy to think that if I’m truly a child of God, then nothing bad could ever happen to me. Yet bad things do happen to God’s children. As the quotation at left shows, the apostle Paul experienced several lifetimes’ worth of trouble in his service for Christ.
Circumstances are fickle. Sometimes you’re on top of the world. Sometimes the world is on top of you! Until you are in heaven, you can’t look to your circumstances to see whether or not you’re saved.