Proverbs 30:7-9
Two things I request of You
(Deprive me not before I die):
8 Remove falsehood and lies far from me;
Give me neither poverty nor riches—
Feed me with the food allotted to me;
9 Lest I be full and deny You,
And say, “Who is the Lord?”
Or lest I be poor and steal,
And profane the name of my God.
As the economy of this nation continues to rapidly spiral downward, we tend to become tempted to gain as much as we can, wherever we can find it. We will play the lottery with complete disregard to the risks of winning large sums of money. We will extend our credit by tapping out our credit cards to pay for the necessary things like food and clothing, because our bank accounts are being raked over the coals to pay bills. Our paychecks don't go as far as they used to a few years ago. Taxes and surcharges and interest rates are climbing, making it nearly impossible to make ends meet.
To add to the mayhem, we still see many churches preaching a God who wants us to be financially rich and prosperous. We see preachers preaching to gullible people the idea that we can overachieve and become rich and wealthy simply by speaking it into existence. This alone totally falls short of the prosperity of what the word of God actually says.
The prosperity that God wants us to have is in the life is from our faith and hope in Jesus. Not in a physical sense, but in a spiritual sense as Jesus says, "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." -- Matthew 6:20-21
Even if you hit the big numbers of the lottery, or come into some new found wealth, it is temporary. You will never be able to take any of it or anything you possess, to the grave. And certainly there will no room for it in heaven - if you make it there. In the event you are not saved by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ, you will surely end up in hell - emptied of all your wealth, and in complete and eternal torment.
The message of a health and wealth prosperity lifestyle is a false gospel. Being rich and wealthy is not a sin of itself. But it will depend on what you desire, how you desire, and what you do with it. It boils down to using and depending upon godly wisdom, as to how and what you do with those blessings.
Normally, becoming instantly wealthy, without really working for it, tends to develop greed and lusts we cannot afford. This probably why many who come into instant wealth are bankrupt within a few short years. More so, it is why many go broke by spending their hard earned money each week on lottery tickets, sweepstakes, and scratchers in wishful thinking of striking gold. Oh, some may be fortunate and win. But the odds are surely stacked against us.
The odds are in our favor only when we submit ourselves to the Lord, and seek His wisdom in the choices we make. Wisdom is a commodity of God we can have for free, because God freely gives it! And that will makes us wealthier for eternity than any earthly treasures we store up here!
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