Wealth

Revelation 3:17

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁷ You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

There is a misunderstanding when pastors preach about financial prosperity and what the public perceives what the message is about.

God wants all of His people to be financially secured and with the capability to help others. However people ask a couple different questions:

If God wants His people to have wealth, why wouldn’t He just give it to them?

Or

Why would God tell His people to get wealth when there are starving people in the world?

The first question, why don’t we just get money handed to us when we become believers-simply because we would ruin ourselves. If everyone was given sudden wealth the number of believers would dwindle to almost nothing; it is too easy to get carried away when we get something good. The wealth would be spent in vain and people would be more inclined in doing what they want to do with the money rather than listening to what God wants them to do with it. Of course He wants everyone living comfortably, but there is a difference in living comfortably and trying to accumulate as many things as we can.

The second question, why wealth to believers and not to those who are starving-He will use His people to do His will which is to help others and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is not His fault if people choose not to believe and go their own way and for those who haven’t heard the name of Jesus to get to hear from believers and they will become heirs of the Kingdom of God as well. We have free will, we can either accept Him or reject Him-we can’t expect to receive the promises and provisions that God has for us if we don’t acknowledge Him and follow the path He has preset for us.

 Do not be fooled into thinking that those who have accumulated wealth based on worldly values and those who have wealth because their faith in Jesus Christ and doing His will are the same. They are not the same, that is why those who have wealth based on worldly values, such as greed and revenge, have to worry about how to keep their money and protecting it from others trying to steal it. You can not have wealth and not have Christ in your heart and on your mind to serve your purpose on this earth. 

Do not become like those who will be around when Christ comes back-the ones who spend their lives trying to accumulate wealth like others around them and not having the time to serve the Lord and receive the wealth that He has laid up for us. In the end the wealth you have is not going to mean anything-it’s what you did with it according to His will.