{"id":863,"date":"2021-07-14T08:53:56","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T12:53:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=863"},"modified":"2021-07-14T08:53:56","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T12:53:56","slug":"prosperity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2021\/07\/14\/prosperity\/","title":{"rendered":"Prosperity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Throughout July we\u2019re taking an in-depth look at Proverbs, the Bible\u2019s one-of-a-kind book about our never-ending need for wisdom.<\/em>

\u201cGod wants you to be rich.  God wants you to be healthy.  God wants you to prosper.\u201d 

According to a highly popular strain of Christianity, you can have it all.  You can Name It and Claim It.  All you need to do is believe that with all of your heart. 

Need confirmation?  Just look at the lifestyles and bank accounts of some of America\u2019s most famous Prosperity Gospel preachers. 

TV evangelist Kenneth Copeland cannot imagine doing ministry without his private jet.  In 2015 he declared that flying commercial (like ordinary people) is equivalent to getting \u201cin a long tube with a bunch of demons.\u201d  If he did that, \u201cI\u2019d have to stop 65% of what I\u2019m doing.\u201d

Not to be outdone or outflown, evangelist Creflo Dollar asked each of his followers to donate $300 to underwrite his Project G650 Campaign \u2013 G650 standing for the finest Gulfstream jet on the market, which costs a whopping $65 million.  When Dollar began to take flak for guilting his TV congregation into funding such extravagance, he declared in a sermon, \u201cIf I want to believe God for a $65 million plane, you cannot stop me.  You cannot stop me from dreaming.  I\u2019m going to dream until Jesus comes.\u201d 

Jim Bakker, the 80s-era televangelist who spent years in a federal prison for mail fraud and conspiracy, is rebuilding his kingdom in Branson, Missouri.  He\u2019s now selling property in a development that he claims will be the safest place to live when the Apocalypse arrives.  \u201cWhere are you going to go when the world\u2019s on fire?\u201d he asks.  \u201cThis place is for God\u2019s people!\u201d 

Historically, followers of Jesus have always been threatened by three fierce idols: money, sex, and power.

American Christians have long been seduced by a fourth rival to God\u2019s leadership in their lives: success.  

For many of us, this is jarring news.  Isn\u2019t financial prosperity \u2013 as embodied by a great job, a burgeoning savings account, and lots of neat stuff \u2013 a sure sign of God\u2019s blessing?  But any honest reading of the New Testament\u2019s four biographies of Jesus \u2013 Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John \u2013 reveals that \u201cprospering,\u201d instead of being the proof of God\u2019s favor, is actually our number one spiritual threat.  \u201cYou cannot serve both God and Making It,\u201d according to Jesus. (Matthew 6:24)

So where do the prosperity preachers go digging for prooftexts that God wants you to have a happier, easier life? 

All too often they turn to Proverbs, which at first glance looks like required reading for a Tony Robbins self-help seminar.  It\u2019s easy to cherry-pick happiness verses.  \u201c[Wisdom says], with me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity.\u201d (8:18)  \u201cHe who trusts in the Lord will prosper.\u201d (28:25)  Obedience to wise teachings will deliver \u201clength of days and years of life and peace.\u201d (3:1-4)

Proverbs 16:3 is one of the most frequently quoted can-do verses in the entire Bible:  \u201cCommit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.\u201d  All too often this is what we hear:  \u201cIf I tell God about the plans I have made for myself, and cover them with a few prayers, then bingo \u2013 God is on the hook for making my dreams come true.\u201d 

But that\u2019s not the real thrust of that text.  

\u201cCommitting our work to the Lord\u201d means trusting in God\u2019s<\/em> power (not our own), and discerning God\u2019s<\/em> dreams for this broken world (not our private hopes that we can somehow get out of this place unscathed).  Then we humbly enroll ourselves as his servants. 

Every morning we place ourselves under the canopy of Proverbs 3:5,6: \u201cTrust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding [or as the Living Bible<\/em> memorably paraphrases, \u2018Don\u2019t rely on what you think you know\u2019].  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.\u201d

It\u2019s worth noting that the word translated \u201cprosperity\u201d in English-language Bibles is almost always the Hebrew word shalom<\/em>.  Shalom represents so much more than just \u201cpeace.\u201d  It evokes God\u2019s deepest yearnings for humanity \u2013 a reality that includes justice, goodness, and joy for people everywhere. 

If we trust in the Lord with all our heart, will we experience prosperity? 

Yes, if we understand prosperity not as \u201csucceeding at the American Dream\u201d but personally experiencing the character of Christ. 

Jesus\u2019 job is not to make us happy.  Or make us rich.  Or keep us free of cancer, suffering, pain, and disappointment. 

Jesus\u2019 job is to make us wise.  And good.

And more than anything else, in this world and the next, to transform us into people who are just like him.   
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Throughout July we\u2019re taking an in-depth look at Proverbs, the Bible\u2019s one-of-a-kind book about our never-ending need for wisdom. \u201cGod wants you to be rich.  God wants you to be healthy.  God wants you to prosper.\u201d  According to a highly popular strain of Christianity, you can have it all.  You can Name It and Claim It.  All you need to… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":864,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[274,272,123],"class_list":["post-863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-name-it-and-claim-it","tag-prosperity","tag-proverbs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":865,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863\/revisions\/865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}