It is so easy to be convinced by the prosperity message. God loves me, why wouldn’t He want me to prosper? That is true, God does love you and He does want you to prosper BUT prosper in your spiritual walk with Him !!!
Matthew 6:33 (Amplified Bible) 33But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.
The lure of money is hard to deny. Nearly all of us like to have nice things, nice food and the freedom to do what we want, when we want to. My question is : Is it wise to abandon yourself to “soft (prodigal) living and to [the pleasures of] self-indulgence and self-gratification.”?
The road to righteousness is narrow and it says: “ Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into the kingdom of God.” ( Matthew 19:24)
Look at Jesus Himself! He had no possessions except the shirt on his back. He told the disciples to take no money when they went on their ministry. Should we not be doing all we can to ensure that our HEART is fully for Jesus ?
I believe that there are some people who are meant to have excessive amounts of money. They are blessed with the gift of giving and seek God’s will for their finances. But I also believe that the vast, vast, vast majority of Christians are NOT supposed to devote so much time and energy to the accumulation of ‘financial treasures’
Perhaps the reason God is not using us as He really want to is we are divided in our hearts. We spend part of our life in the Spiritual realm but most of our life in the financial.
You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
James 5:1-8 1COME NOW, you rich [people], weep aloud and lament over the miseries (the woes) that are surely coming upon you. 2Your abundant wealth has rotted and is ruined, and your [many] garments have become moth-eaten. 3Your gold and silver are completely rusted through, and their rust will be testimony against you and it will devour your flesh as if it were fire. You have heaped together treasure for the last days. 4[But] look! [Here are] the wages that you have withheld by fraud from the laborers who have reaped your fields, crying out [for vengeance]; and the cries of the harvesters have come to the ears of the Lord of hosts. 5[Here] on earth you have abandoned yourselves to soft (prodigal) living and to [the pleasures of] self-indulgence and self-gratification. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6You have condemned and have murdered the righteous (innocent man), [while] he offers no resistance to you. 7So be patient, brethren, [as you wait] till the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits expectantly for the precious harvest from the land. [See how] he keeps up his patient [vigil] over it until it receives the early and late rains. 8So you also must be patient. Establish your hearts [strengthen and confirm them in the final certainty], for the coming of the Lord is very near.
God Bless You!
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