God Wants You To Be Rich!

On Friday Misty found an interesting show on TV for us to watch.  The sad thing is she left to run an errand and I ended up turning the show off because it nearly made me physically sick.  This reality show follows the life of a financially wealthy minister who pushes a prosperity gospel.  This pastor claims that God wants you to be rich and you can be rich because God made him rich.  This pastor was shopping for a jet in this episode and shared about his mansion that seemed like a small cabin when all his kids were at home.

It's "ministers," and I use that term very loosely here, like this that are misleading millions of people around the world.  Whether its everybody's favorite king of the prosperity TV preachers who smiles at them as he leads millions astray or his female rival that has her own "ministry" that provided her with her solid gold toilet, there are plenty of preachers out there tickling the ears of people (2 Timothy 4:3).  The sad part of all this are the lives left in ruins when God doesn't make them millionaires.

God does want you to be rich, but not financially.  God wants you to be spiritually rich.  I'm not saying that wealth or riches are a bad thing.  Financial wealth is one of the ways God is able to accomplish His kingdom's work here on earth.  Wealth like anything else can be corrupted, perverted and misused when we do not view it as God views it.  I have known some very wealthy people who have used their wealth wisely for God's kingdom.  I've also known wealthy people who allowed their wealth to give them a sense of entitlement and arrogance.  God isn't going to make anyone financially rich just because they ask for it.  The reason being if He did then we would be more focused on what we have here and not on working for Him to build His kingdom.

I think the "theology" of prosperity preachers is rooted in a comment I heard on the show we watched last Friday.  One of the minister's daughters said that if she had to take a vow of poverty she would have never been saved.  Wow!  I am no person's judge but this comment makes me wonder if she has put more faith in her riches than in the blood of Christ.  The greatest riches we could ever hope to have are the ones that are given to us through a relationship with Christ.  So the next time you hear a prosperity preacher claim that God wants you to be rich, remember that He does want you to be rich...spiritually!

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