How many times have we heard the “prosperity” message debated in the body of Christ? Well, last night I was involved in one of these conversations for the “n’th” time. It still rumbles in my heart, so I decided to blog about it.

There are two different views that are predominant about this topic: one is that God wants His children to be blessed financially. Many churches teach this prosperity message in a way that seems (to me) to communicate that Christians ought to have the best of everything – from cars and houses and jets to clothes and bank accounts.

Another view is the opposite: God wouldn’t have His children to be wealthy when so many around us are hungry or doing without – especially when it comes to the “preacher”. A comment that was brought up last night was “I have a problem when a pastor drives a car that’s nicer than the ones that his congregation has”.

So which one do I agree with? Neither.

I believe that one of the church’s greatest problems is what I call “extremism”. Webster defines this as “advocacy of extreme measures or views” and gives the synonymn of “radicalism”.

The church seems to migrate to one extreme or the other, and then launches verbal nukes at each other – making more important an “issue”, or “agenda” than it ought to be.  And innocent bystanders catch the fallout.

I believe in a “middle of the road” approach. I believe that God can truly reconcile these differences if we would simply open our hearts and minds to receive His heart on the matter and quit judging people solely on what the two orbs in our heads can see on a natural basis only.

Do I believe God wants all His children to be prosperous? ABSOLUTELY! Do I believe He wants all His children to be wealty? I would hope so. The key issue to me is “what in the world is your definition of ‘prosperity’?

I believe Mother Theresa was one of the most prosperous folks ever! I know financially wealthy people who I would also call prosperous. My definition of prosperity is totally what a person has in his/her heart, but for the sake of this argument let’s leave it at financial wealth.

So why aren’t we all rich? It’s because our hearts aren’t right. If the LOVE of money is the root of all evil, then can we not say that the LOVE for God is the root of all holiness? I believe God truly makes certain people wealthy because they have a heart to love Him more than the money, and would love Him and serve Him the same if they were poor.

But the issue that is always brought up is the financial prosperity of a “pastor”. Pastors just don’t get to be rich. Why is that? If the preacher drives a Lexus, BMW, Escalade he is judged by one extreme as “getting paid too much” or “selfish/greedy”. The other side judges that he is blessed of God.

How can we “justify” either one of these views if we don’t have a true and intimate relationship with the preacher? What if he makes 200K a year, but gives over half of that back to the church or to others? What if he was given that as a gift, and takes what that car payment would be and gives it monthly to a missionary? Who knows?

This is one of my pet peaves, folks. We judge so easily based on what we see with our natural eyes – something we are commanded NOT to do: II Cor. 5:16 tells us 

Therefore, from now on, we regard (or perceive) no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.

Yet don’t we do this? If we judge a man’s spiritual condition and heart according to how much money he has or what he drives or lives in . . . . or according to how much he doesn’t have . . . . .

What was the cross all about?

What are your thoughts?