The Prosperity Gospel

There are two opposite teachings on faith. You can believe you will get absolutely anything you want, which is the prosperity gospel, or you can believe God will get your through anything you need to get through, with a good attitude. 

Does God want you to Always be healthy and wealthy? No. I don't know why pastors still teach that. That is what Charismatic preachers often teach. Health and wealth are the two main things they teach on repeat, and it has always annoyed 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 tend to spend it quickly. Maybe I worry all the extra money will corrupt me and pull me away from God. I have seen that happen to a few people. 

I spent 20k in 3 months one time. It was a life insurance check I got for a friend who passed. 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." I went to Australia, and it was a fun trip. I am glad I did it, even though it could have seemd like a waste of money. God can use money to bless you, but he can bless you in other ways too.

Does God want you to always be healthy? Jesus did heal almost anyone who was sick 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, every time they are sick. 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. He wants you to learn patience and endurance. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger yes? It makes your faith a lot stronger too, that you can survive many things. 

Did God heal Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament? This is a passage that Pentecostal preachers often ignore. 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 in regards to healing him. But he wrote most of the New Testament. If God told him no, of course he will tell us no. He wants to make us stronger. We don't get stronger when we are always happy and comfortable. Was Jesus always comfortable? No. Neither will we be. Neither should we be. 

God wants you to become more mature in your pain. God wants you to give to the poor so that you will not love your money more than him. Don't love any money that you have, and don't expect God to keep you totally healthy. He does not do that in reality.