On the Prosperity Gospel

Job had a lot of trials in his life, possibly more than anyone who ever lived.  But then God blessed him more than most are blessed as well, because he passed the test and stayed faithful to God.  :)

He was blessed in the beginning because the Word says that he was blameless before the Lord.  So due to his obedience to God, he was blessed, financially as well. 

Then, in order to prove to Satan that Job would stay faithful to God no matter what, God allowed Satan to send many trials on his life.  But Job never cursed God.  He asked why, many times. :)  As we all do when we go through hard times. :)  But God never explained himself.  He simply said "I am God and you are not."

Job then apologized.  He prayed for his friends, even though they were pretty ruthless and mean towards him despite his sufferings.  They certainly kicked him when he was down.  Poor Job. :(  But Job forgives them, prays for them, and humbles himself before God. 

Therefore, God blessed him with twice as much after his testing as he had blessed him with before the testing. 

Job 42

'And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then all his brothers, all his sisters, and all those who had been his acquaintances before, came to him and ate food with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversity that the Lord had brought upon him. Each one gave him a piece of silver and each a ring of gold.

Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys." 
I used to take issue as well with the prosperity gospel like most.  I used to not like the way Joel Osteen preached etc. 

But why do we have such a problem with the concept that God wants to bless us?  Is it because we think we don't deserve to be blessed? 

Well we don't ultimately. lol  But God still chooses to bless his children anyways because we are his children and because he loves us. :)

I have been blessed in many ways in my life.  I have certainly had hard times, but God has also blessed me a lot.  I think this is because I have generally been obedient to God.  I have messed up in some things, as we all do, so then I got less of God's blessing for me I'm sure, but he works all things together for good in the end. :)

Granted Paul had to suffer a lot in his life, but he was also blessed.  He was probably the most popular man of his day.  Think of how many friends he must have had.  :)  He always had people welcoming him into their homes etc.  He did get persecuted a lot, yes, but he had many blessings as well.  Look at the story of when he was singing in the jail cell, Acts 16, and his chains fell off.  Cause and effect.  He was praising God despite his circumstances, as Joel Osteen talks about, and he was blessed by getting supernaturally set free.  How cool! 

God will respond to us based on what we do.  There are rewards in heaven.  We would all agree to that yes?  "Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy."  There are also rewards on this earth.  We are blessed based upon what we do and how obedient we are to God. 

Do you want God to bless you with money?  Well it's simple, be a good and faithful worker at your job and you will be.  Give 100% in everything you do at work, tithe, and God will bless you with more money.  Money is not just going to fall out of the sky.  Any preacher that preaches that, and I have heard some on TV, are teaching a false doctrine.  But if we will do our part, God will bless us.  Both Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer teach that and that is the truth.

Do you want to be blessed with a better marriage?  Then be more loving toward your spouse.  Treat them the way you would treat Jesus.  Respect them and they will respect you.  Do what 1 Cor. 13 says in regards to how to love others.  Then you will be blessed with a better marriage. :)

Do you want to be blessed with better behaved children?  Then raise them up in the fear of the Lord and they will be better behaved. :)  Discipline them and correct them etc. 

The Bible is clear that the Christian walk is neither all us or all God, it is both.  It is cause and effect.  "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure."  There is this dichotomy of us and God working at the same time.  We do something to show we are obeying God and God responds and does something for us. 

Any preacher that does preach only about what God does for us and leaves out our responsibility to be obedient to do what God tells us, this is the prosperity gospel.  But at the same time, any preaching that only focusing on what we need to do and leaves out what God does for us, that is the opposite of the prosperity gospel.  I guess you could call that the shame gospel or the defeatist gospel.  We need to be in the middle.  Not too far on either side.  There is a balance to everything.  Amen. :)


Here is a good comment from a friend about this on facebook:
"I like the part about having a healthy balance. :) But be careful about your cause and effect statements or equations. "If you do _ then _ will happen." Sometimes someone can love their spouse the way Christ would, but the other spouse does not. This could still lead to a bad marriage.

Also, many times families with multiple kids raise their kids nearly perfectly in obedience to God, and one of them may still choose the wrong path. This often times has nothing to do with the parent.

 And these bad things have nothing to do with the believer living in obedience, you see?  These bad things are caused by another person living in sin.

Also, I believe if you are living in obedience to Christ you are just as likely to be blessed with good earthly circumstances as you are likely to be blessed with not so good earthly circumstances. I don't want anyone to think they are living in hardship because they were not living in obedience to God. It could be quite the contrary."

Those are very good points. 

There are many pastors kids who go way astray and it doesn't seem to make sense. :( There are spouses who get cheated on even though they themselves are a great and loving person. :( Things go badly for good people all the time.  That is very true.  She makes great points for sure.  :)

About her last statement though I would say you are at least slightly more prone to be blessed if you are obedient to God.  Yep. :) 

More comments:

From my husband :)

"Life isn't always going to be perfect, but if God wants to bless us financially I'm sure going to praise him for it and be thankful. :) It's not impossible for God to bless people financially right?  Everything good comes from him.  If money isn't a curse to your lifestyle by the way you spend it then I think having more money could be considered a financial blessing from God right?"

My response :)

"Yes God blesses us in every way including financially.  Often people want to overlook that but money is necessary for life so why wouldn't God bless with money? yep :)   Someone said if God thinks we can handle responsibly him blessing with money then he will. :) If we are good stewards of what we already have then he will. Amen :)"  (such as tithing etc.)

"Also I heard once in a church someone say "it is not God's will for you to be sick" but Paul talked about the thorn in his flesh and that that actually was God's will for him to keep him humble. So sometimes God does bring hard times on us to teach us something. That is very true as well."

From my hubby :)

"I understand why people would be upset that some TV evangelist has a 20 million dollar beach house when kids are starving in Africa.  Obviously that's some really poor stewardship, but for regular working class people it can be hard to convince them they don't need to be financially blessed sometimes."  Yep.

My response :)

"Yes amen everything in moderation.  God does not need to excessively bless people with money but he does promise to meet our needs if we are obedient to him.  Amen."

"And check out Job 42.   He had trials for sure, but then God blessed him a lot, because he passed the test and stayed faithful to God.  :)

'And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then all his brothers, all his sisters, and all those who had been his acquaintances before, came to him and ate food with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversity that the Lord had brought upon him. Each one gave him a piece of silver and each a ring of gold.

Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys." 

So God can bless us abundantly more than we ask for or imagine, as another verse says. 

I pray that God will bless you in every way as you try to be obedient to Him. :)  Amen :)