What about prosperity?

 

 

When the Bible says God will prosper His people, how should that be interpreted? Does it mean wealth, health and personal success? If so, this is an insult to the Christians in many parts of the world that are persecuted and dying violently because the people around them hate Jesus Christ. Does prosperity mean that no matter what I do or how I live, God will bless me? If so, them I’ve totally misread other parts of the Bible that say God is far more concerned with my character than my comfort.

A couple of weeks ago we heard a soft-spoken man tell of the treatment he received when he abandoned the faith of his family to follow Christ. Three times they tried to kill him, breaking his arm and causing him to flee his homeland to live as a refugee. Where then is the God who promised prosperity?

The problem is with our definition. In the OT, the words translated PROSPER are about peace, well-being and safety, not about money or a perfect life. When God prospers, He grants assurance and the ability to obey Him, no matter what is going on around us. True prosperity is happiness and contentment, inner joy and faith regardless of externals. It is finding well-being without depending on health, wealth and popularity to get it.

Yet it can also mean temporal blessings, not that they are the source of well-being but more like the result of it. Deuteronomy 28ff speaks of the blessings of obedience followed by the curses of defying God. In part, it says:

“The Lord will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake. And he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. The Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. And the Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.”

Yet as already pointed out, this promise is a teaching tool not a definite result for obedience. The best way to measure it is looking at Jesus. He never sinned or resisted His heavenly Father. If living a perfect life earned prosperity (as we define it) then Jesus should never have been put on a cross. However, if His prosperity is measured by God’s definition then He was successful because He lived totally in the will of God.

In those terms, that refugee ‘prospered’ during much of his ordeal. He didn’t retaliate nor did he abandon his faith. He fled and was hounded by the threat of death at the hands of people who should have loved him. He has very little possessions, yet he is faithful to the One who saved him from sin’s penalty — and in the mind of God that is prosperity and success.

When Moses died and Joshua took over his position of leadership, God said to him:

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

God’s words to this man motivate me to GAZE INTO HIS GLORY, to read and meditate on how God thinks and what His will involves for my life. If I do what He says, I will prosper — fully aware that in the promises of God, prosperity is not money in the bank, or prized possessions, or even a boatload full of friends. It is about doing God’s will in His strength without wavering. It is also realizing that I’ve not arrived yet, that my prosperity is incomplete, but one day, when I see Jesus as He is, I will be like Him. This promise gives me hope but also courage to press on, even through the times when God’s blessings seem far away and my confidence gives way to dismay. I stumble and waver but His promises are for an abundant life with an unchanging assurance. This is His prosperity for my soul.