You hear so much about how God's will for us is all blessings and prosperity-the good life. It is all positive stuff and very attractive. If we only think the right things,and say the right things then God will grant us our wildest dreams.
I believe few if any persons in the last century achieved the place of perfection with regard to being in God's perfect will for their lives than Betsy and Corrie Ten Boom, and this place of the perfect will of God was to stand naked in a concentration camp, in freezing weather in front of the leering eyes of their captors.
Corrie Ten Boom's testimony belies the prosperity doctrine, did she believe in God's abundant provision? she surely did, she tells the story of how when the prisoner's rations were reduced to two bowls of watery soup per day, the only way to suppliment this meagre diet was with a small bottle of vitamin oil her sister had sent her, this she shared out with all the prisoners in her block,day after day, week after week long, long after it should have run out.
Did she believe in God's overuling providence? she surely did when she and Betsy knelt to give praise and thanks for every single thing in their lives-even the lice and fleas- they later learned that those little fellas were the reason the guards stayed away from their barracks so they could have their daily bible study and prayer with all who cared to join them, many were saved and helped.
Betsy died there in Ravensbruch, their beloved Father already having died in custody. After the war Corrie travelled the nations of the world, living out of a suitcase into her eighties bringing the glorious message of victory over all circumstances, "no matter how deep the pit, God's love is deeper."
Could Corrie have avoided any of this? yes she could have chosen not to reach out to the persecuted Jews in Holland when the Germans invaded that peace loving country. Just as Jesus could have chosen in the Garden of Gethsemane not to endure the cross, but like their Master they chose the path of God's will.