Prosperity Preaching

From Charles Spurgeon’s “Morning and Evening” for today:

"In my prosperity I said I shall never be moved."—Psalm 30:6.

“Moab settled on his lees, he hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel." Give a man wealth; let his ships bring home continually rich freights; let the winds and waves appear to be his servants to bear his vessels across the bosom of the mighty deep; let his lands yield abundantly: let the weather be propitious to his crops; let uninterrupted success attend him; let him stand among men as a successful merchant; let him enjoy continued health; allow him with braced nerve and brilliant eye to march through the world, and live happily; give him the buoyant spirit; let him have the song perpetually on his lips; let his eye be ever sparkling with joy—and the natural consequence of such an easy state to any man, let him be the best Christian who ever breathed, will be presumption; even David said, "I shall never be moved;" and we are not better than David, nor half so good. Brother, beware of the smooth places of the way; if you are treading them, or if the way be rough, thank God for it. If God should always rock us in the cradle of prosperity; if we were always dandled on the knees of fortune; if we had not some stain on the alabaster pillar; if there were not a few clouds in the sky; if we had not some bitter drops in the wine of this life, we should become intoxicated with pleasure, we should dream "we stand;" and stand we should, but it would be upon a pinnacle; like the man asleep upon the mast, each moment we should be in jeopardy.We bless God, then, for our afflictions; we thank Him for our changes; we extol His name for losses of property; for we feel that had He not chastened us thus, we might have become too secure. Continued worldly prosperity is a fiery trial.
"Afflictions, though they seem severe,In mercy oft are sent."



Some thoughts I had while reading this today:

**This doesn't sound much like the prosperity gospel/name-it-and-claim-it/Word Faith heretical preaching we hear on Christian TV and in Christian bookstores, does it?

**I wrote a post a while back about God’s discipline of straying believers, and that is definitely true, but I didn’t point out well enough, I think, that trials are not always in response to our sin. We must not look at a fellow believer who may be suffering and automatically and arrogantly assume they are being judged for some sin in their life. God’s ways are higher than ours, and we must not presume, like Job’s friends wrongly did, that we know what His plans are for our brother or sister in Christ. We shouldn’t waste energy on judging another person’s situation, but expend our energy by praying for them, loving them, and helping them bear their burdens. God allows and uses trials in our lives for various reasons, and sometimes we may not know the reason, but we know our Savior and we trust His character as He has revealed Himself in His Word, trusting Him to work all things for our good and His purpose. Always we must turn our affection and attention to Him for His glory alone.

**Anything I allow to become more important to me than Christ can become an idol in my life – even my husband, my children, my house, my car, finances……..When things are going well, it is very tempting to presume that I deserve the good things in my life or that I have earned them by my own goodness. It is also tempting to presume that I will always stand and to begin trusting in my own strength rather than Christ’s. It is God’s grace that allows trials to humble me when that pride enters in, hard as that is for me to want to say. In fact, prosperity itself can be a trial where I can either choose wrongly to trust in my circumstances or learn to give God all the glory and use the prosperity He has granted to practice gratefulness and recognize it all comes from Him and obey Him with the provision He gives. There are many warnings in the Bible about how hard it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God – precisely because we are so very prone to trust in our prosperity and to think we are better than we are rather than placing our trust in our God who provides our sustenance and recognizing our desperate need for forgiveness and mercy. Our righteousness is as filthy rags, only Christ Jesus is truly righteous and we must trust in Him alone.

**Proverbs 30:7-9
“Two things I request of You
(Deprive me not before I die):
Remove falsehood and lies far from me;
Give me neither poverty nor riches –
Feed me with the food allotted to me;
Lest I be full and deny You,
And say, “Who is the LORD?”
Or lest I be poor and steal,
And profane the name of my God.”

**In the prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray, he taught us to ask for our daily bread. May we learn to be content with what God provides, not seeking after the lusts of the world, but seeking His glory alone, and learning to worship Him with whatever He chooses to provide. May we learn to trust Him alone whether our trial be prosperity or not – may we seek first His Kingdom, and trust Him to provide our needs.