Posted on 11/17/2017 7:51:20 PM PST by metmom
When you think of the kind of trials that test your faith (James 1:2), do you ever think of material prosperity as one of them? Most of us don’t. We tend to think of suffering, adversity, and loss that put us in places of significant need.
And we try to avoid experiencing such needs if at all possible. If such experiences come, we really want, and therefore pray, for God to deliver us from the needy seasons as soon as possible. For surely a God who loves his children would not want them experiencing need, right? He’d want to bless us, right? Right. Unless need happens to hold greater, richer spiritual blessings than plenty. In that case, needy seasons would be greater gifts to God’s children than plenteous seasons.
“We need as much of God’s strength in abundance as we do in need, and very likely more.”
Think about the testimonies you’ve heard of people’s powerful encounters with God. Ask yourself how many of those stories of powerful, transformational, life-altering, love-producing, sanctifying encounters with God were the result of being lavished with worldly prosperity. If you’re like me, you come up empty. But if you know any, you can probably count them on one hand with fingers left over.
(Excerpt) Read more at desiringgod.org ...
A very thought provoking article.
Great
Post. Thanks.
We do need to be biblically faithful here... and King Solomon was the equivalent of a trillionaire. Donald Trump would be a flash in his pan.
But that’s not all the story. What one DOES with the wealth matters. If one uses it to bring blessings to others, the Lord may well sustain it.
The true danger here is in counting that wealth as one’s source of life, and selfishly hoarding it. That’s a recipe for a life of great discontent — the stereotypical miser.
The author brings up many valid points about the risks of prosperity, things that are very overlooked by the Word of Faith/Health,Wealth, and Prosperity movement.
Jesus had this to say to the rich Laodicean church.
Revelation 3:14-22 “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.
“‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”
I see the church in America in that state.
We may be materially prosperous but I see a great spiritual impoverishment.
One man.
And the point is?
The exception is never the rule.
There is danger in making it so.
I have learned that it is difficult to be a good giver in the sense of having good discernment that the charity will in fact truley help those in need.
Just throwing money at problems without discernment, IMHO places one in spiritual danger.
It seems sort of weird that he’s associating it with porn.
There are still worse sins in the world than this.
God will judge kindly according to what you mean, not necessarily according to what the recipient meant.
If there should be a rule, it’s that what you give should always have at least a little gospel in it. I will hand a 20 to a begging homeless man on the street, for example, but I will also be sure to tell him “The Lord is near.” Now the onus is on him before the Lord to take it in that spirit or to push the Lord off and use it on his God-forgetting pleasure.
I wondered about that too, Girl... as the bible does state that sex sins are “against the body” in a way that other sins aren’t. Meaning, I take it, that they misuse the body. Mammon mania will not, of itself, do that. Though it could lead into other acts that do that.
There could however be a broad figurative sense in which it applies, like we might talk figuratively about “being prostituted to money.”
And yet... for what it’s worth, C. S. Lewis believed at least some sex sins to be less risky than sins of more direct pride, in that someone in sex sin can more easily see that he is in trouble than someone in a sin of pride.
And also we can give our loving Father short shrift, as it were. Money doesn’t even need to be the main means of survival — only a convenient means in our modern society where merchants are plentiful.
It was a lesson I had to learn through becoming so poor that it was only the figurative “ravens” who were feeding me — sufficient sources that would enter and leave my life without a plan or reason visible to me, but of course it was visible to my Father.
But even through those times I felt a desire to be generous of heart, a desire that the Lord frequently provided an outlet for, such as serving as a volunteer musician, or writing poems and songs which would find later use in my life as testimonies to Him.
For if we truly love the Lord, that reflects the Lord truly loving us, and the currency of that is a heavenly one, cleared through heavenly banks as it were. And we can live on quite little and still be happy from day to day. Because we know that our circumstance at a moment isn’t our larger picture. And when we find we can give something meaningful to others yet, something that might not even be money, we will feel “as rich as Rockefeller.”
I’m of two minds about it.
Sometimes, when you get involved or obsessed with something, it slips into your vernacular.
Or, it’s for search engine optimization.
Either one seems a little off.
Maybe I just don’t have a problem with coveting so I’m just not making the connection.
Lust, I understand that one.
But others people’s stuff? Nah. Couldn’t care less.
But isn’t it only fornication that fits in that category?
I was not talking about the one homeless man on the street.. I am reflecting on much larger donations.
IMHO, these acts of charity usually require discernment; tough sacrificial love; and attentive care. All of which makes us much better holier people.
Prosperity that leads to individuals being blessed to do great acts of charity should be the call.
BTW, one of the most charitable acts one can do is to give a person a job. As St. Jose Maria points out, one can find Sanctifying Grace in ordinary everyday work.
Unfortunately, we have government and NGO monopolies on charity that make it difficult to be truly charitable in the sense of “teaching one to fish, not just giving them fish” and finding Sanctifying Grace in ordinary everyday work.
I admire people who give generously to those in need or to worthy causes but do so anonymously.
Not that I have that much to give, but when I do I shut up about it and try not to pat myself on the back.
I suspect that most freepers feel the same way as I do.
It is not a sin to be rich.
It is a sin to use porn.
So I think it’s a false equivalence. There are tough temptations for the very rich, as well as for the very poor, of course.
There’s no fixed rule except give glory to God. That’s what our Lord purposed to illustrate. Some folks take illustrations as wooden directions and ending up patting themselves on the back for THAT worse than they’d risk by commending it to God out loud whilst giving it.
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