Why I Would Rather Face Adversity Than Seek Prosperity
Picture this: you’re sitting in church or watching a sermon online and the pastor starts to talk about how you deserve a pain-free life, without suffering and hardships and that God wants you to be rich, successful or popular. These statements start to stir up some feelings inside you because you remember a Bible verse that says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” Matthew 6:24. You also know that God called you to deny yourself and follow him: “And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” Mark 8:34.
If you have ever felt this way, you are not alone AND if you have never experienced this, I want to bring light to a false gospel that is very appealing to the world’s eyes and if we are not careful, we may start to believe it to be truth. It is so appealing because it takes the focus away from God and places it on us.
I want to start by defining prosperity. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, prosperity is, “the condition of being successful or thriving especially: economic well-being.”
This topic has been on my heart for a while now and after many signs, prayer and seeking wisdom, I felt the need to write about it. I want people to know the truth about The Gospel. The Gospel was never meant to be about our successes, but rather about the great sacrifice Jesus made on the cross on our behalf because of how unworthy we are.
The more I look into the prosperity gospel, the more it terrifies me. It terrifies me because so many people believe our life is supposed to be easy, that we are supposed to strive for riches and that it is ultimately all about us.
Wishing for prosperity is a slippery slope that leads us to expect God to bless us. It leads us to think we deserve blessings, wealth and fame because we are morally “good” humans.
The truth is, we are not good. Only God is good.
Another false teaching surrounding the prosperity gospel involves the idea that God promises a life free from pain and suffering. There are many examples in the Bible that completely disprove this notion.
John the Baptist: Unjustly thrown into prison and beheaded by King Herod. (Matthew 14:1-12)
Job: Covered from head to toe with sores, seven of his sons died, three of his daughters died, he became poor overnight and his wife repulsed him. (Job 38:1–42:6)
Paul: He was kidnapped, beaten, threatened, arrested multiple times, accused, ridiculed, shipwrecked, bitten by a snake and beheaded— all for the sake of furthering The Gospel. (2 Corinthians 11:16-33)
Jesus: Suffered the most brutal and undeserving death, so we could have relationship with our Heavenly Father. (Matthew 27:32-56)
Do not mistake the suffering they endured to be caused by a lack of faith or a lack of prayer. Jesus asked God to let the cup of suffering pass from him in the garden of Gethsemane and I can guarantee The Father did not deny Jesus’ request because His faith was insufficient.
Be encouraged!! The Lord does not abandon us, He does not give us anything we cannot handle and His hand is in the midst of everything.
“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.” 2 Corinthians 4:8-11
Y’all, please just read your Bible…it is full of countless examples that refute the teachings of the prosperity gospel. It is so amazing because it is alive, active and always true. I love the description of the Bible, found in Hebrews 4:12-13 (below):
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
This means that the Bible is just as true today as it has ever been. It does not contradict itself and is useful for us each and every day. It helps us to discern and know Truth, exposing what is not true.
Biblical Warnings About Seeking Earthly Wealth:
Jesus warned us when he spoke in the Sermon on the Mount:
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Matthew 6:19-24
In Hebrews 13:5, we are instructed to be content with what we have, because The Lord will never leave us with less than we need.
“Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Money itself is not a bad thing. I believe The Lord blesses certain people with riches and instructs us to use those blessings to serve others. Please don’t take this as me saying that people with money are not following the Lord. He most definitely showers different people with different blessings in different seasons of life. It comes down to how your heart is postured— are you depending on God to provide for you or are you depending on money? Ultimately, this earth is not our permanent home, therefore we should not store up material possessions.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 16:19-21
Blessings from The Lord were never meant to be stored up and held here. Instead, our investments should be eternal. We should be more concerned with investing in the eternal lives of others than investing in things that will eventually fade away.
Now that I have covered what prosperity gospel is, and what the Bible warns against, I want to provide you with some tools and ways to detect prosperity.
So, how do you know if something is prosperity?
John Piper gives us six keys to detect prosperity gospel (below):
Number one, the absence of a serious doctrine of the biblical necessity and normalcy of suffering, the absence of a doctrine of suffering.
Number two, the absence of a clear and prominent doctrine of self-denial is a tip off that something is amiss, an absence of a clear and prominent doctrine of self-denial.
Number three, look out for the absence of serious exposition of Scripture.
Number four, watch out for the absence of dealing with tensions in Scripture.
Number five, do the church leaders have exorbitant lifestyles?
Number six, last one. Is there a prominent of self and a marginalization of the greatness of God? Does the preacher seem to parade himself? Does he figure into the talk too much? Is the greatness and majesty and glory of God the centerpiece of all he says and does? Is the preacher in love with the glory of God in the gospel? Is he broken hearted for his sin? Is he contrite and humble? Is he publicly self-effacing? Does he repent of the sins and model how to appropriate daily the sweetness of what Jesus did for us on the cross? Or is the majesty of grace marginalized while he exalts himself?
Read the Word of God
If you have questions, concerns or doubts about what you are hearing, go to the Word and read truth for yourself. Light pierces through all darkness and the truth will always prevail
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:5.
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17
“Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” 2 Peter 1:20-21
I say all of this in hopes that you will seek Truth. It is not to disunite the body, but rather to unite believers in truth— something the enemy does not want. In today’s society, it is easy for us to think everything is about us and the reality is, nothing is about us. We were never meant to be praised. Lets join one another and fix our eyes on The One Who is mightier than anything else in the world and spread the true Gospel. Let’s love one another by seeking and teaching truth.
“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:17-18
With love,
Brooke
