The Danger Of Being Happy, Healthy, And Wealthy

It is pretty safe to assume that most people have prayed that God would heal them of some sort of physical ailment.  Many people, and statistics prove this to be true, have also prayed that God would give them a promotion or some desire that they feel life would be incomplete without.  However, most people don't ever stop to consider the consequences of getting what they want.  Perhaps the old saying is true, "When you get what you want you won't want what you got."

If that wasn't helpful then perhaps a turn to English literature might help illustrate this point.  In 1902 W. W. Jacobs wrote a short story called "The Monkey's Paw."  This story illustrates the danger of wishing without thinking.  A man gets a monkey's paw that has the ability to grant wishes, however he is warned not to wish for anything because the paw is cursed and there will be grave consequences.  Herbert refuses to listen and wishes for a sum of money to pay for his house.  He is granted the money after his son is tragically mutilated in a machinery accident.  His wife, also not thinking before wishing, wishes for her son to be brought back to life.  Sometime later her son arrives at their door, mutilated and disfigured.  The couple quickly wishes him dead again.  In the end the moral of the story is that wishes can be harmful.

The same is true with desiring happiness, health, and wealth.  Each of these in the wrong time or in the wrong way can be spiritually detrimental to an individual.  Achieving happiness can often come at the expense of successful ministry.  Some of the greatest ministries that are achieved require toil, sweat, blood, and suffering.  Only through intense agony is a great victory achieved.  So many of the Prophets and Apostles could have wished for happiness but instead they asked for holiness and strength to be faithful.  Paul was not told at his conversion that he would have happy days ahead but that he would be shown how much he would have to suffer for the name of Christ (Acts 9:16).

Wishing for health is perhaps the most danger of all of these desires.  Many people pray for health and never think about the reason for their prayer.  When you prayed for healing did you pray to be healed so that you would be comfortable or so that you would be effective in ministry?  Most prayers for healing revolve around personal comfort.  And yet C.S. Lewis has rightly said that "pain is the megaphone that God uses to get our attention."  Could it be that asking for healing might be physically comforting and spiritually condemning?  Can you think back to the numerous times you have been afflicted and seen God draw you closer to Him in those times?  Someone once said that the servant that God uses greatly is the one whom He wounds deeply.

Last, praying for wealth can very easily drive a person further and further from Christ.  It is quite obvious that Jesus believed that wealth could be an opposing god when He called it "Mammon," which is representative of a pagan god (Matthew 6:24).  The more you have in this world the more you are attached to this world.  Think about it.  A bigger house, a nicer car, and more toys all require more maintenance and more money to upkeep or replace.  Having all of these toys (and often we are all guilty of calling them "necessities") then requires more time spent at work to acquire the money to purchase and maintain each of these things.  And so the cycle goes on and on and on.  This is exactly why Jesus says in Matthew 7:25, "For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?"

Praying for happiness, health, and wealth may sound good, and there certainly may be times where these are valid and reasonable requests, but they can also be traps that tie you to this world and drive you further away from Christ.  So the next time you are about to pray for any of these stop, take a moment, and think about why you are asking that prayer.  Is it for your own personal benefit or does it benefit Christ?  Is there a monkey's paw curse attached to your request that will keep you from being drawn closer to Christ and spiritually matured?  If there is then it might be best to simply let the wish go, suffer joyfully, and learn to be more reliant upon God for the strength you need for each day.  2 Corinthians 12:8-9 says, "Concerning this (Paul's affliction) I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.  And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.'"

Does God Want You To Be Happy, Healthy, And Wealthy?

The majority of Christian in America would say that one of God's primary concerns is their happiness, health, and personal wealth, thus the 25,000 plus that gather at Lakewood Community Church to hear Joel Osteen.  But is this really true?  Do these ideas about God really match up with what the Bible teaches?  Let's deal with each of these ideas individually.

Does God want you to be happy?  Absolutely, if your happiness and joy are in Him.  Galatians 5:22 says that the fruit of the Spirit is "joy."  However, it is important to distinguish biblical joy and happiness from the modern idea of these concepts.  Biblical joy and happiness are experienced in spite of difficulty and opposition, modern joy and happiness are experienced without any difficulty or opposition.  It is not uncommon for people to say, "I am happy because everything is going my way."  This phrase says that joy and happiness are experienced when trials and troubles are absent.  However, biblical joy is found in Jesus, not in circumstances.  Acts 6:41 says, "So they went on their way from the presence of the the Council rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer for His name."  Does God want you to be happy according to the world's standard of happiness?  Absolutely not, because the world's standard of happiness and joy are in direct opposition to the biblical practices present in God's Word.  God is not so much interested in your personal happiness as He is your personal holiness.

Does God want you to be healthy?  Absolutely, if it is spiritual health rather than physical health that is being addressed.  God's primary concern is not for the body but for the soul.  Jesus said in Mark 8:36, "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul."  Too often we are guilty of praying for physical healing simply for personal comfort.  We spend the vast majority of our time praying for people to be comforted rather than to be conformed to Christ.  But what if, instead of praying for people to be healed to feel better we prayed for people to be healed so that they were drawn to Christ, or others around them were drawn to Christ, and that God was glorified.  Now this is not to say that God is totally unconcerned for the physical health of people.  Indeed, He has taken the name Yahweh Rapha (the Great Healer) because it is a reflection of His nature and actions.  However, this does not mean, as those who would hold to prosperity teaching are prone to say, that God WILL heal everyone who has faith.  If this were the case then why did God refuse to heal Paul?  Paul says of his affliction in 2 Corinthians 12:8-9, "Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me, and He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.'"  God is not so much interested in your physical health as He is in your spiritual health.

Does God want you to be wealthy?  Absolutely, if it is wealth that is heavenly rather than worldly.  Jesus said in Matthew 6:19-21, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  If your wealth is in heaven then your thoughts will be upon heaven, conversely if your wealth is in this world then your thoughts will be upon this world.  Does God want you to be wealthy on this earth?  I am inclined to say no.  Throughout Scripture those who have wealth are commanded to be liberal in their giving.  Now this is not to say that wealth is inherently evil and that those who have it are wicked, but rather to say that wealth is a very seductive temptation that may be better avoided.  Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and wealth."  God is not so much interested in your earthly wealth as He is in your heavenly wealth.

Does God want you to be happy, healthy, and wealthy?  Yes, if it is biblical happiness, spiritual health, and heavenly wealth that are being presented.  However, if it is emotional happiness, physical health, and earthly wealth then the answer may be, and often is, no.  Next time we will examine the danger of getting the emotional happiness, physical health, and earthly wealth that prosperity preachers say that God has planned for you.

Why Do You Serve Christ?

The article that I will be referencing is titled, "God Wants Me To Be Rich."  If this link does not work then just type in "God Wants Me To Be Rich" in the Google search engine.

Alright, first let me apologize for not updating my blog as much as I should have last month.  Since I announced my resignation as pastor of ECBC I have been extremely busy and was unable to move forward on last months topic.  That said, I am now free to continue our quest to understand the culture in light of the teachings of Christ.  This months topic is particularly important as it serves as an example of what happens when the world and the church join forces.

I am sure that most of you have heard of Joel Osteen.  Some of you have probably even watched his TV show or glanced at his books.  Therefore I am not going to spend much time on him, but instead to focus on the issues that he brings to the table.  The words of his own people should be enough for us to understand who he is and what he teaches.  In their words he is called "Reverend Feelgood."  By the way, if you flip through the pictures that are offered of Joel Osteen in the article you can see the lifestyle he lives as a result of his teaching.

What Joel Osteen preaches is called "prosperity gospel."  It is essentially the belief that when you receive Christ His sole desire is to make you happy, healthy, and wealthy.  In fact, Osteen says himself, "God wants you to have a big life.  That is His blessing.  God has a big dream for your life."  Essentially, the belief is that if you are not prospering than the problem is not God but your faith.  If you simply had more faith then you would be prospering.

There are several issues with this teaching, more than I can possibly address even if I spent the next year dealing only with this topic, but let me for a moment address the problem with Osteen's personal prosperity.  Hear the words of Paul to those who minister in 1 Timothy 6:9-10, "But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."  Those who seek after wealth will fall because of their pursuit.  Now this is not to say that Pastors should be poor and destitute as many in more traditional churches believe, for even Paul writes 1 Timothy 5:18 that the "worker is worthy of his wages."  What Paul is saying is that Pastors should live a moderate or temperate lifestyle not given to worldly treasures.  By the way, this is the standard of life that Scripture expects for all Christians.  So then, even if we were to step away from Osteen's teachings a simple look at his lifestyle would reveal that he is not living according to the standards set for him in God's Word.

Next time I will address the question, "Does God want you to be happy, healthy, and wealthy?"