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.'"