What can a Christian expect regarding financial prosperity?
Discussion question for July 11, 2009
There are plenty of traditions and customs regarding financial prosperity and the Christian walk. What did you believe about prosperity as you grew up? What core values have you developed regarding money and material possessions? How are you demonstrating those values to others? If we claim the promise that anything we ask according to His will, we know we will have it, then how can we know His will about our financial condition?
Here is my summary of our discussion.
The Old Testament describes God’s promise to the Israelites that He would bless them for acting in obedience to His commands. The descriptions of blessing included increased wealth and financial prosperity (Deuteronomy 28:1-14). One of the purposes of these blessings (verse 10) is that other people would see and fear the Lord.
If God’s promise of prosperity is current, and available for us to claim today, then we need to know how to measure prosperity. Here are some standards we discussed and rejected because they were either too subjective or of limited practical value:
a) comparative standard. Compared to the rest of the world we are financially prosperous. However, we are off the top of that chart whether we have much or little compared to our immediate surroundings.
b) accumulation standard. Prosperity measured by the amount of assets or things one can amass is a physical measurement (richest man in the world, worth millions or billions, controls many things). However, there isn’t a fixed level at which a sense of prosperity is assured.
c) income standard. The amount of cashflow available at any given time measures the freedom a person has to make choices in the present. However, this leads to consumerism and greed but doesn’t measure a lifestyle.
Prosperity is not measured by having more than you know what to do with. More assets than you can manage leads to anxiety instead of peace. More income than you can handle leads to stress, as well. Prosperity is knowing what to do with what you have.
We can measure prosperity by blessedness, and to be blessed is to be happy. This is a subjective standard as well, but accommodates the fact that some have peace, freedom and contentedness irrespective of their standing by the more physical measurements listed above.
The Old Testament described the state of prosperity in physical terms (accumulations, control, income). The New Testament describes it by actions: giving to the poor, generosity toward the Kingdom. The focus changes from the physical realm to the spiritual realm. Jesus taught about that throughout His ministry. In fact, He prescribes these actions as the way to overcome greed (Luke 12:15).
We can expect God to give us everything we need. That means we are not to have faith in faith, but faith in God. We are not to claim the promises, but claim the Promiser.
The New Testament church (Acts 2) shows a picture of everyone selling all they had and giving it to the poor, and to the church. They had all things in common. This is a lesson to us that they were 100% invested in the spread of the good news and the Kingdom of God. Some of us could demonstrate being “all in” by acting the same way. But, some of us might be called to demonstrate our total commitment in other ways as well. The key is not to mirror the actions, but to follow the example of total commitment.
What’s reasonable then? How much is enough, from the point of view of funding prosperity? God promises that He provides everything we need. If we live according to that promise, then we would act believing that He has already given us exactly what we need. We can be prosperous (happy) on just what we have.