Something that has challenged me for a while now is this thought of a “Prosperity Gospel.” This idea that Christians should be wealthy and have lots of things because we are”christians” just sickens us. Yes God does bless us more than we can ever imagine but what about the millions of believers in other countries that do not have 5 dollars to their name, and might live on the street and have no earthly valuables? These fellow brothers and sisters know what it’s like to have nothing, but they do know something that we may never know in our Christian walk…and that is that Jesus Christ is EVERYTHING to them.
I sometimes wonder what it would be like if we lost everything! If we became modern day Job’s and lost everything, if we would stand there, having just lost our family, our wealth, our homes, etc… and if we would say “the Lord gives & the Lord takes away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.” We know nothing of suffering for the name Christ. And I pray that we would not focus on what God can give us or what we “deserve” because we are believers. We deserve death, we deserve to be tortured for Christ.
Here is a short video from John Piper about this idea of “the prosperity Gospel.” The Prosperity Gospel