Health and Wealth

 Does God want you to always be healthy and wealthy? No. I don't know why anyone would think that. That is what Charismatic preachers always teach. Those are the two main things they teach on repeat, and it has always aggravated me. 

Here are verses about being rich...."You cannot love both God and money." "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven." "The love of money is the root of all evil." 

Can you be rich and still love God more than your money? Yes of course, but it is not easy. Any time I have had a good amount of money I spend it kind of quickly. Maybe I worry all the extra money will corrupt me and pull me away from God. I spent 20k in 3 months after an ex died. It was a life insurance check I got for him. I should have saved it, but I always think of the verse, "Do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth where moth and rust destroy." It was a fun trip. I am glad I did it, even though it was costly. 

Does God want you to always be healthy? Granted Jesus healed others everywhere he went. That was to establish the fact that he was and is God. It did not mean that God wants to heal everyone at all times. If he did, then he would. So many people stay sick for a long time. That does not mean God doesn't love you. It means he wants to teach you something in your pain. 

What did Paul say? In 2 Cor. 12 he said, 

"I was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

This means that God even told Paul no about healing him. He wrote half of the New Testament. If God told him no, of course he will often tell us no. He wants to make us stronger, not for us to always be happy and comfortable. Was Jesus always comfortable? No. Neither will we be. Neither should we be. 

God wants you to grow more mature in your pain. God wants you to give to the poor so that you will not love your money more than him. That is what I have learned from the Bible.