The Gospel does not promise you better life circumstances; it promises you a better life.
Timothy KellerWe modern people think of miracles as the suspension of the natural order, but Jesus meant them to be the restoration of the natural order.
Timothy KellerWhile Christianity was able to agree with pagan writers that inordinate attachment to earthly goods can lead to unnecessary pain and grief, it also taught that the answer to this was not to love things less but to love God more than anything else. Only when our greatest love is God, a love that we cannot lose even in death, can we face all things with peace. Grief was not to be eliminated but seasoned and buoyed up with love and hope.
Timothy Keller