Friday morning is my men's group. We have only been meeting for 3 weeks, but I can already tell this will be a great group of guys. We are studying Steve Farrar's new book, "God built". It's a book that uses the story of Joseph to talk about how God works in our lives. The discussion today turned to this question, what is real prosperity? What does being blessed by God really look like? We talked about our culture and the world around us. We talked about money, houses, cars and stuff. We talked about Joseph and our own lives. As the discussion bounced around the table I thought about what the bible teaches about blessing and prosperity. It's a lingering thought for me because there is such an emphasis in our day, in our culture, on God's desire to bless us financially. This has always bothered me because I have never seen that in the bible although I have read it many times and studied it for years. Blessing and prosperity from God's point of view is never focused on stuff, but is always focused on relationship...relationship with him. All through the bible God describes blessing and it's all about a relationship with him. That very relationship is blessing and prosperity apart from all the stuff of the world. I have met people with nothing who are wealthy beyond measure because of their relationship with God. I have met wealthy people, very wealthy people, who are poorer than those with nothing. It's never been about WHAT you have, but always been about WHO you have....and that who is God himself. Having him makes us the richest of all men regardless of what material stuff we might have. All the stuff will be burned up, but a relationship with God 
and the results of that relationship will last forever. Wealth, blessing and prosperity is all contained in a person, God himself. If you have him you have it all...you are blessed indeed! That's real prosperity!
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and the results of that relationship will last forever. Wealth, blessing and prosperity is all contained in a person, God himself. If you have him you have it all...you are blessed indeed! That's real prosperity!Psalm 84:12 O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.
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2 comments:
I just had a similar discussion with a friend the other day. I do often wonder what it means for God to be "good." What is that? I think we have unfortunately defined it within the context of our culture. Most of us have no idea what it means to pray for our daily bread. We are just annoyed that we can't buy the latest and greatest whatever. We like our creature comforts which seem to define goodness. I read yesterday that during last year, the world lost 1/3 of its wealth. That's HUGE. Our lives have all been impacted. Did God stop being good? No way. But "good" just may not look like what we would "like" for it to look like.
Hope that made sense. I've been thinking about this topic a lot. My lecture topic for Oct. 8th is "suffering."
Yeah. Should have thought about that one a little longer before I said "ok" to doing it. ha, ha.
My husband and I were talking about this subject as well. It's confusing when we see that certain people in the Bible were materially prosperous. That's how the prosperity preachers validate their position. They also use themselves and their prosperity ministries to prove their position."'God is no respecter of persons' just as my ministry is huge and me and my family is rich, is the same way you can be, IF you "trust God" and sow your seed!" Im so disgusted by the subtlety of this! I havent even sorted it out myself yet. These preachers never elaborate on any other form of prosperity!
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